Lethal Love (Revamped Edition)
by Luca and Luna J Winchester
Summary: Three best friends stumble across the purposely dropped notebook of death after class one day and after ultimately deciding to keep it for themselves, their lives take a dramatic turn as everything changes forever. Kohaku Hatashi, Light Yagami, and Sakae Shiraki never expected that the Death Note would create a rift between them and it's one that cannot easily be patched up...
1. Before You Read

**BEFORE YOU READ THIS STORY, READ (AT LEAST) THE FIRST THREE PARAGRAPHS BELOW THIS! THANK YOU AND GOOD DAY! HAPPY READING!**

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 _This is a revamped edition of a fan-fiction that I finished about two or more years ago. I just went back to look at it one day and I cringed so much at it. Like, how did anyone like that piece of shit? Like seriously, how? It's horrible. I can barely stand looking at it. However, I'm keeping the original up because maybe some of you reading this have never read it and want to see the crappy version before seeing this brand new, more likable one that still might also be cringe-worthy. You don't have to, though, unless you want to spot the differences with each chapter and trust me, there's gonna be some big differences between them. Mostly, though, the original is staying because everyone needs to know that I started off with being a shitty writer and now, I'm a slightly less shitty writer that's more descriptive! __If you are someone who has read the previous version of this work, welcome back!_

 **Honestly, the only real major difference is the massive change in descriptions so you have that to look forward to, I guess. I'm not gonna lie, it's gonna take me a long goddamn time to get each revamped chapter out so please, be patient with me, babies. The wait will be worth it, I hope. I mean, I promise!**

 _And now, for a little extra whatever about this fan-fiction before you begin reading. It doesn't have anything to do with the story, not entirely, so you can skip ahead to the first chapter of this revamp now._

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 **1) Lethal Love's theme song hasn't changed. _Much_. Originally, I had chosen the Japanese second opening of the anime. This time, it's the same song but in English and boy, Jonathan Young can fucking sing. He's hella bomb so check him out if you don't know who he is. He covers just about anything, really. He also got featured in two Google Translate Sings songs and it was funny as hell, like most of those songs are.**

 _2) Alright, so, I'm gonna start with Sakae's theme. It's a Melanie Martinez piano cover for her song, Soap. Why is this her theme song? If you have heard the song, you'll know that the song is about being unable to hold in your words (least, that's how I see it) and when those words come out, regret settles in (again, what I got from it). I chose this as her theme because she tends to be having an inner struggle of sorts about what to say and what she should avoid saying, only for her to sometimes say something that causes some conflict, which leads to her feelings of regret. If you don't think this fits her at all, happily give me some suggestions and a reason why the different song fits her better._

 **3) Time for Kohaku and her theme. It's another Melanie Martinez piano cover, but it's for her song, Dollhouse. Why does this fit her? Her family is dysfunctional, imperfect. Outside, anyone who isn't close to her can't tell that she deals with some shit at home. And my reason doesn't stop there. No, I also chose this song because Kohaku is an imperfect person. While the song isn't about an imperfect person but an imperfect family, I still say that this fits her best because who's perfect? No one. Especially not Kohaku. I nearly had chosen Mad Hatter by Melanie Martinez but Kohaku isn't all that crazy, just overly aggressive sometimes.**

 _4) I changed the love songs for our pairings. I only remember one of the original ones and that was Boy Like You by Ke$ha, that song being L and Kohaku's theme. Now, their theme is War of Hearts by Ruelle. A detective and an eventual college student. A cute weirdo and a violent troublemaker. An unlikely romance occurs between them. They don't want to love each other, mostly cause the feelings are very new to them both, but they find themselves ending up together anyway. Least, that's how I see it, now. This is a revamp, shit is changing; emotions are being made known more in the descriptions. And yes, I'm a fan of Shadowhunters. I'll make a fanfic for it eventually but it'll be without an original character getting with a canon character cause I ain't ruining ships, especially ain't ruining Malec. Malec is my otp, babies._

 **5) Light and Sakae, their theme is another song by Ruelle. It's called Storm. Yes, it's also from Shadowhunters. It's a great song, too, bitches. The meaning is self explanatory in the song's lyrics. Or, you know, it's a love song so I picked it without too much thought about it. We don't care much for their pairing anyway, right? Kohaku and L are the real deal here, am I right? I recall that pairing being the most loved. Somehow.**

 _6) A lovely surprise for you guys. Not really. The fun facts remain. However, some new ones will be added at the end of each chapter and they'll be about a certain part of said chapter. Some will have multiple, but no more than three. It's even likely that some chapters might just have nothing new added, fact wise._

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 **Changes From Original Throughout Revamp**

 _1) Errors Will Be Fixed (Some Might Remain, Though; Can't Catch Them All)_

 **2) Dialogue Will Be Added**

 _3) New Scenes Will Be Created (Hopefully)_

 **4) New Information Will Occasionally Be Revealed (Hopefully)**

 _5) It Potentially Has Better Descriptions Than Previously, Thank God_

 **6) There May Be Possible Changes From What Happened Originally (AKA, Some Actions or Reactions to Things May Have Changed For The Better or For The Worst)**

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 _Now, then! Enjoy your reading! Farewell!_


	2. 01: Notebook of Death

_Death Note;_ _a supernatural blank-paged notebook that grants it's owner an ability to kill anyone by simply writing the person's name, all whilst picturing their face. It comes with many rules and such regulations must be followed or else, consequences are to occur sooner than oneself has anticipated._

 _No known human has ever owned one..._

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 ** _Caitlin Glass as Kohaku Hatashi  
Michelle Ruff as Sakae Shiraki_**

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 **Warnings:** _Errors of Any Sort, Possible Out of Character Moments, Profanity, Violence, Attempted Public Sexual Assault of the Gang Kind, Slight Gore, Death, Some Cringe Worthy Descriptions (Sorry, Not Sorry), Plenty of_ _Convenience, Realistic (To An Extent)_ _, Info Drops_

 **Changes from Original Edition:** _Errors Were Fixed (However, Some New Ones May Have Arrived), Dialogue Was Slightly Altered/Added/Removed, A Bit of New Information Was Added, Descriptions Are Better Than They Previously Were, and Finally, Kohaku's Appearance and Personality Has Been Slightly Altered to be More Realistic_

 **Additional Information** : _Bold Means Translations (Won't See That Very Often), Italics When Someone "Speaks" Means Thoughts (Occasionally, Those Thoughts Happen Outside of Quotation Marks), and Single Quotation Marks Means Quoting. You Won't Get This "Reminder" Again._

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 **This follows the** English Dub **, the years displayed within the Anime, and the dates of events from the Manga. If you're not pleased by any of this information, leave at once and do not complain to me about it. Do not judge this story on the chapter you walk in; give it until the third or fourth chapter before choosing whether or not you wish to continue forward further; it makes sense, however, for you to judge a story with only one chapter available but it still would be polite to wait until further updates before you choose to leave or remain. It truthfully annoys me when someone stops reading, based on what they've read from a single chapter, because it's not fair to the author's writing (they could get better over time, if you find them to be problematic). Just give this story a chance, as with any other story you spot. Thank you. :)**

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Within his high school English classroom, Light Yagami, a seventeen-year-old with fair-skin, was sitting silently at his desk. He appeared to be slightly bored, his elbow resting on his desktop whilst his hand remained perched against his cheek, his fingers brushing gently against the edge of his short light-brown hair. He was facing the front of the classroom, but his dark-brown eyes were focused on the activities of his fellow classmates; none of them were paying attention to their instructor, instead either playing video games underneath their desks or conversing with one another in loud whispers. Either way, it was unlikely that the teacher would notice them because he was far too busy with reading aloud, his attention on the educational book in his grip.

Seated in the desk directly behind Light was Kohaku Hatashi, an eighteen-year-old female with porcelain-skin. She had an expression of pure boredom, her large indigo-blue eyes locked onto the figure of the teacher that she wasn't truly listening to. Annoyance flickered across her face for a split second when she overheard a few gossiping females talking about some male that supposedly was furious at one of them. "Nobody cares," she mouthed, unsympathetic about the drama of the other females within the classroom because she only cared for her own and such included drama that revolved around her best-friends; no one else's problems mattered, for the most part. She reached towards her bob-cut chestnut-brown hair and silently played with it as she zoned out, ignoring the open book that was laying on the desktop in front of her.

Located within the desk towards Kohaku's right was Sakae Shiraki, a seventeen-year-old female with a gentle tan. Fingers lightly tapping on the book that laid before her, her grayish-blue eyes were locked on the ceiling; her mind was elsewhere. She was grinning and her golden-blonde hair swayed as she shifted in her chair, it falling from rest on her shoulder and landing across her middle back. She cared for nothing in that moment, except for leaving.

Kohaku, Light, and Sakae were the best of friends, and they had known one another for a long period of time; however, they met each other at different points. Light and Sakae were childhood friends, brought together by being within the same classes throughout their entire lives. During her final year of elementary school, Sakae met Kohaku by chance when both were at the same store with a relative of theirs and though they were unlikely to be friends, they became very close. The following year, Kohaku was introduced to Light when she entered the same middle school and in that moment, the separate friendships turned into a trio.

As the class continued dragging on in a painfully slow manner, Kohaku released a huff and stopped messing with her hair, boredom bringing her back into the world of dull reality. She glanced towards Sakae, placing her elbow on her desk as she pressed her cheek against her palm, further indicating her disinterest in everything around her. "Goddamn, this class is more boring than usual," she commented lowly, hoping to catch her friend's attention.

Sakae blinked, her thoughts escaping her as she looked away from the ceiling to gaze at Kohaku in return. Furthermore, the tapping of her fingers ceased as the spark in her eyes diminished. Processing the stated words, she nodded slowly in agreement. "Yeah, it seems so." She glanced at Light, nodding her head towards him. "Not even Light is paying attention. Actually, he seems more out of it than usual today."

Groaning, Kohaku looked away from Sakae as her expression of boredom turned into one of anxiety. "Ugh, don't say things like that. You know how I get sometimes." Sure, Light was usually focused on whatever their educators taught them and okay, he tended to get distracted sometimes just like anybody else, but even so, anxiety was brought upon Kohaku; her best-friend instincts were attempting to kick in, the natural tendency in which a close companion would worry over absolutely nothing about a comrade when they did something even slightly different than what they normally did. She really hated those urges, but at least they didn't occur very often. She moved her book closer to the edge of her desktop and face-planted into it, ruffling the pages as she groaned again. "Thanks so much for that, Sakae," she uttered, her words slightly muffled.

"I was just pointing it out," Sakae defended, her tone gentle. "There's no need to get too worked up. Light is just being Light." Unfortunately, her reassurance was a complete failure as the anxious teen just waved off her words of wisdom. Kohaku was correct, though; Sakae knew, far too well, that her dear friend tended to get anxious about matters that involved either Light or herself. As she watched Kohaku keep her face buried inside the pages of the book, Sakae began to feel guilty about saying anything. In front of them, Light released a faint sigh, having overheard the females, and rolled his eyes at the typicality that was Kohaku.

Their teacher droned onward with his dull recital as most students continued to drift along within their dreamlands, avoiding their educator's words. "'Listen for the voice of God. Then, follow it and know that in time, you will find your salvation'." He glanced up from his booklet. Amongst the crowd of obvious mischievous students, Light was the one the teacher called out; he just happened to be the first student that caught his line of sight. "Yagami, are you still with us? Can you please translate the following sentence into _Japanese_?"

Light glanced away from the students he had silently been studying, taking notice that he was the one being called upon and not someone else, such as Kohaku. Sighing and dropping his resting palm from his cheek, he pressed the aforementioned appendage against the desktop as he stood. He picked up the thin booklet, that laid open on the desk, and started reading aloud from it, just like the teacher instructed. Everyone within the classroom suddenly paused their movements as they listened, half of them likely hoping that he'd mess up. " **'Follow the teachings of God and receive his blessings, and so it shall be that the seas will again become bountiful, and the raging storms will subside'.** " Placing the book back onto his desk, he returned to his seat with a continued blank expression.

The teacher nodded in acceptance of the translation, somewhat visibly pleased. "Excellent work, Yagami," he praised. About to recommence with his reciting, something else caught his eye. With an irritated grunt, he made his way towards the back-right corner of the room, heading straight towards where the three best-friends sat. In her seat, Kohaku's head remained buried inside the book, but additionally, she was asleep. Beside her resting figure, Sakae was leaning against her chair and her eyes were closed as she slowly drifted back into her own little world. The loud smack of their teacher's hand hitting against Kohaku's desktop sounded throughout the entire classroom, causing snickers to release from various classmates that found the situation humorous.

Sakae jumped in her seat, her eyes snapping open as she was roughly pulled from her dreamland. "Holy sugar cookies!" she exclaimed, unable to stop herself. She immediately blushed in embarrassment as most of her fellow classmates burst into laughter. She smiled sheepishly up at the teacher, who was giving her a stern look. "Oh, sugar cookies... I'm so sorry..." She glanced towards Kohaku and noticed that she remained sleeping. Awkwardly, she leaned over in her chair and reached towards her friend to shake her; their seats weren't too far apart, but even so, she still looked, and felt, ridiculous. "Wake up, please... Now may not be a great time to take a nice nap... Seriously, please just wake up already, Kohaku..." she softly spoke, eyeing their teacher as she shook her friend gently.

Kohaku released a hum as she started to awaken from her short slumber, waving her arm as she swatted Sakae's hand away. After shifting around, she opened her eyes slowly and sat up straight within her chair, rubbing at her eyes as she let out a loud yawn. Nobody laughed at her; she had a tendency of becoming quite violent when angered. "Hmm...?" Her bearings clearing, she looked up to see their teacher glaring at her. "Oh, hello, Sir. How kind of you to pay me a little visit," she stated in a flat tone, uncaring.

"It's nice to see that you two have rejoined our class," the teacher snapped. "Now, let's continue on with the lesson." He turned from her desk, inadvertently allowing her the opportunity to give him the finger, and headed back towards the front of the classroom. In a matter of seconds, he returned to reciting from the booklet, resulting in the students returning to their own little worlds as they ignored their mostly oblivious teacher again.

Nervous laughter quietly escaped from Sakae as she looked at Kohaku again. "I guess we're lucky we didn't get into more trouble." She still felt a little embarrassed, but additionally was relieved that they hadn't been sent out of the class for nothing; some instructors were very strict about what happened inside their teaching space, never hesitant to send out a student for something unimportant, but luckily, their English educator wasn't the type to completely reinforce the rules.

Kohaku scoffed. "We're only lucky because our teacher is about as dumb as a sack of potatoes." She shook her head as she eyed everyone inside the classroom. Their classmates weren't even trying to hide the fact that they weren't paying attention, yet none of them were called out for it; therefore, their teacher was either dumb or just extremely oblivious to most.

Sakae turned her attention towards their classmates, too, and released a sigh, nodding her head. "Point taken." She watched their teacher as he continued reading aloud without noticing that nobody was actually listening to him; she kinda wondered if he'd ever realize that...

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Several more hours of boredom ensued before school released; once allowed, everyone began making their way towards their homes. Kohaku, Light, and Sakae were heading to the male's household, like they usually did; his residence was practically a second home to the females, especially since they were there more often than they were at their own households, not that anything was wrong with their homes _much_.

As they walked together in silence, Sakae eventually took notice of Kohaku's uneven, and tired, posture; it almost looked as if the female was sleep walking. With concern welling up inside, she started waving her hand in Kohaku's face as they walked beside each other. "Kohaku? You're still awake, right?"

Grumpily, Kohaku pushed Sakae's hand out of her face, the sidewalk returning to her line of sight. "Yes, I'm very awake. _Sorta_. I'm managing to keep my eyes open, so that's a plus, I guess." She was kinda confused about why her exhaustion was fully hitting her then. How she succeeded in spending half the day without falling asleep, _mostly_ , was beyond her. "By the way, don't ever do that shit again. I could've ran into a pole or a naked hobo. You never know."

"Well... I guess the teacher did wake you up during your little nap... Then again, that couldn't be why you're still tired because the nap was super short. Ummm... Also, I-I'm sorry about doing that, but I was just making sure you weren't sleep walking or anything... So, uh, yeah... Sorry..." Sakae stopped speaking, closing herself off from the conversation. She felt like she'd only cause Kohaku to become _more_ agitated.

"Are you getting enough sleep, Kohaku?" Light asked, finally showing some concern.

Apparently, that wasn't the best question to ask because Kohaku erupted into pure outrage. "Of course I get enough fucking sleep, asshole! You should know that; I sleep at _your_ damn house just about everyday! I just didn't get much rest _last_ night! Word your questions better, jackass!" Kohaku stopped walking, causing her friends to pause, too. She faced them, no longer yelling but remaining pissed off. "My dad was yelling at my mom when I got home, alright? I mean, they usually fuss, especially in the morning, but this was a first for them. Somehow, they managed to argue all goddamn night." She moved into a stance and started mimicking the behavior her drunken father had displayed to her just-as-drunk mother. "'This is all your damn fault, Yue! If you hadn't given our daughter a man's name, she wouldn't be coming home so late! She's probably going to bars or sleeping around with random men that have drug problems, using a fake name so they don't think she's some freak or something! The folks at her school probably think she's a lesbian!'" Although those weren't the exact words he used, they were close enough. That man could be ridiculous when he was intoxicated; some angry drunks were like that. She released a sigh, shaking her head.

"Why the heck would anyone think you're a lesbian?" Sakae questioned, raising an eyebrow. "You don't really hang around girls, apart from myself, and I certainly haven't seen you attempting to flirt with someone of our gender."

"Seriously? Out of everything, that's all that caught your attention? His drunk ass believing I'm considered a lesbian?" Kohaku rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You're correct, though. I'm definitely not a lesbian and I haven't done shit to prove I'm even remotely close to being one." Huffing, she stared at her best-friends; her _only_ friends. "God, did you hear those chicks in English? They wouldn't shut the hell up about some dude who was mad at one of them for 'no reason'. I'm pretty damn sure the bitch gave him ninety-nine reasons to be mad. God, her talking just made me want to shoot her, and myself, in the fucking face. Why is everyone so fucking annoying? Well, you two aren't, _for the most part_ ; everyone else is." She looked away from them, beginning to walk along the sidewalk again; they followed behind her.

"I don't know," Sakae answered. "I guess too much drama lingers around them." She had overheard the same conversation, but had chosen to pay it no mind; it was some pointless thing that had nothing to do with her. "Thank you for saying that I'm not very annoying." She bowed slightly as she walked; Kohaku didn't see her doing such, but hummed in response to the unnecessary thanks.

"Just ignore them next time," Light told Kohaku. "Don't let their mindless conversations bother you so much." Those pointless matters were nothing to worry about; there were far more important things to focus on.

"Whatever you say, buddy boy." Kohaku sighed. Staying silent for the remainder of their walk, she listened as Light and Sakae chattered amongst themselves. _"What a shitty fucking day..."_

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The following day, they were back inside their English classroom and once again, it appeared that things were gonna be rather dull. Light was gazing out the window as the teacher recited more lines from the booklet he held. In their desks behind him, Kohaku and Sakae were mumbling a conversation, neither of them paying attention to their instructor. "'Another noticeable consequence is the extinction of many species on the planet. Species are now becoming extinct at a faster rate than has ever occurred in our recorded history," their educator read, oblivious of the fact that nobody was listening. However, that time around, more than half the class were on their cellular phones, messaging friends from other classrooms.

As Light silently continued staring out the window, a black notebook suddenly fell from the sky and it landed in a patch of grass within the courtyard. He gazed at it, completely caught off-guard. He remained with such an expression for a moment, causing his close friends to spot his disbelief. "Yo, Light," Kohaku called out. "You okay there, buddy?" She raised an eyebrow. _"What the hell did he see?"_ Something certainly happened, she had no doubts about that.

"Huh?" Light blinked and turned from the window, glancing behind himself to eye his concerned friends. He nodded shortly and, without hesitation, lied to them, his expression becoming blank. "Yeah, I'm fine." Maybe he just had been seeing things.

"Are you sure, Light?" Sakae questioned, frowning. Her worries remained because she was certain that he was lying; regardless of being correct or not, something happened. _"Did he think about something? Did he see something? No, he would've said so..."_ She wanted to know what caused the sudden shift in Light's posture; being unaware of a potential problem only made her more concerned; most likely, it wasn't anything but even so, he was acting a little strange.

"Yes, I'm sure," he responded quickly, turning away from the females as he placed his attention back towards the window. Gazing around, he eventually spotted the notebook again; it was still within the grass. Perhaps someone dropped it from the rooftop or maybe they had thrown it; the latter made more sense because the notebook was too far from the building for it to have been merely dropped.

"Liar," Kohaku accused. She gestured at him and the window. "Nobody just randomly becomes surprised while staring out of a goddamn window." Dropping her hand onto her desktop, she continued staring at the back of his head. "Unless the sky is fucking falling or you've seen the makings of a very bad porno, there's nothing that can bring about that expression."

In response, Light spoke calmly, despite his irritation. "You shouldn't make assumptions. I was only remembering that I have to do something later."

"That's fucking bullshit and you goddamn know it," Kohaku stated, her anger beginning to build further. That wasn't exactly a newfound discovery in their friendship; occasionally, she'd get pissed with him, for little-to-no reason, because she didn't have much patience. " _Also_ , I'm not making assumptions, douche-ass. I _know_ that something's wrong, so go fuck yourself with your bull." She crossed her arms, leaning against the chair as she uttered another word of choice. "Jackass."

"I heard that," Light halfheartedly teased, continuing onward with staring out the window, his eyes remaining on the mysterious notebook. Perhaps someone would pick it up. If not, maybe he'd grab it himself after class, just to take a peek of what lied inside; then, he'd leave it be for the owner to eventually find.

"Yeah, he's definitely out of character," Sakae uttered as she eyed Light longer. Beside her, Kohaku sighed, nodding with slight satisfaction of the agreement. The aforementioned female glanced towards the sighing teen, tilting her head. "Are you okay?" Her friend shrugged before staring down at her desktop. "Kohaku?" Sakae frowned.

"Fuck off," Kohaku grumbled, turning her gaze towards the windows. She wasn't no longer in a talking mood; she was aggravated. She hated being left inside the darkness. Perhaps Light was trying to hide something from them. Well, if that was truly the case, she wasn't gonna sit around and wait _forever_ ; she'd find some way of revealing the truth.

Sakae gulped, bowing her head as she looked towards her desktop. "S-Sorry," she stuttered in apology. She knew better than to try continuing on with reaching Kohaku whilst she was in such a state of aggression; she needed to stop speaking or otherwise, her easily angered best-friend would just get set off further. So, instead, she kept her gaze on her desk, ignoring her surroundings as she remained silent. Her attention, however, was eventually drawn back into reality by the call of her name; she glanced up in the general direction of the voice. She blinked, her eyes locking on Light, who stared back. "Yes?" she softly questioned, gazing at him with curiosity.

"Is everything alright between you and your brother?" he suddenly asked.

 _Ah, her older brother._ Sometimes, they didn't see eye-to-eye; however, in more recent timing, their relation became a tad smoother. Therefore, she supposed her answer was yes; everything was fine and dandy, _for the most part_. "Uh, yeah, everything's okay. Well, for now, at least," she replied truthfully, smiling a little. She honestly wouldn't be surprised if an argument broke out between herself and her brother later that day or sometime the next week; their views towards things were vastly different. Even so, the love between them never lessened; they only had each other to lean on. Light merely nodded and shortly afterwards, he looked towards their instructor, growing quiet once more as he thought about the mysterious notebook that, supposedly, fallen from the sky...

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After a prolonged period of time, the class came to its end once again, the school beginning its closing for the evening. The three best-friends were walking outside, remaining within school grounds. Coincidentally, they were strolling around the area in which the mysterious notebook had fallen, a fact known only to the male. Kohaku seemed to be back to her usual behavior, showing zero signs of the verity behind her mask; she was still annoyed. Sakae, too, wasn't physically revealing her true feelings; she was still a bit down. Light, on the other hand, was more focused on a different matter as he came to fully realize their location; he stopped walking, turning towards the direction where the notebook laid. Without a word, he began strolling away from the females.

Sakae blinked, confused as she watched him walk off. "Ummm, Light?" she questioned, speaking so lowly that the male was unable to hear her. _What is he doing? Did he see something again? Did he want to rest on the benches?_ Whatever he was doing, it was breaking his usual routine.

Kohaku raised an eyebrow as she, too, watched their friend stroll away. "What the fuck is he up to now?" she wondered. Glancing over at Sakae, she hoped that the teen had some clue as to what was occurring, but when Sakae gazed towards her in return, all Kohaku got was a shrug and an uncertain expression. Curiosity quickly getting the best of them, the females started making their way towards Light as he leaned over and picked up the black notebook.

As he straightened up, with the curious-looking journal in hand, Light released a sigh as he heard the girls approaching him from behind; he hoped they wouldn't follow, but then again, they echoed his footsteps just about everyday, so he should've expected such. "Couldn't you two wait for me?" he questioned in slight annoyance, studying the title of the dark notebook.

"Nope, that would've been fucking boring," Kohaku immediately answered. "So, whatcha got there, buddy boy?" She moved forward, side-stepping to his left, and looked at the notebook. "Hmm?" She narrowed her eyes, staring at the title. "' _Death Note'_? That's a very...strange name. Most go for, you know, _human_ ones like Kagome, oddly enough."

"Mmm." Light nodded slightly. He turned the notebook over, becoming pleasantly surprised that there was some writing and it wasn't mere inadequate scribbles; it was a set of detailed rules. He began silently reading the first guideline as Sakae stepped to his right. " _'How to use it. The human whose name is written in this notebook... Shall die'._ " That was very straightforward.

Kohaku read the same guideline within her head. "Wait, so, you can kill just about anyone by simply writing down their name? Wow, that's a kinda cool concept, if you really think about it. I mean, you don't see these kinds of things just laying around." She felt that it was likely fake, most things similar to it were, but she was still very intrigued.

Light quickly flipped through the Death Note, noting that more rules were located in the back and absolutely nothing had been written on the lined pages. Shortly after that discovery, he closed the apparent notebook of death and placed it back onto the ground. "If you ask me, it's a pretty lame concept, not to mention that it's twisted. It's not that different from one of those chain letters you get. 'A human whose name is written in this notebook shall die?' C'mon." He turned around, beginning to walk back towards the school building. Kohaku and Sakae remained where they were.

"Wait, you aren't gonna keep it?" Kohaku questioned, tilting her head as she watched him. "Not even for the hell of it? What if someone else finds it and they believe it to be real?" She paused as Light stopped walking, only a few steps away; he looked back towards them, saying nothing. "They'll have all the fun in the fucking world while we'll just go back to our scheduled program of boredom and dullness. I say we take the damn thing anyways, so we can have some decent entertainment for once." She'd pick it up herself, but she didn't want to be held responsible for anything that happened afterwards.

Additionally, she wasn't the only one greatly intrigued by the Death Note's concept; Sakae, having been mostly silent, kinda wanted to take the notebook, too, but for a rainy day or something. They could play pretend for a bit and write down names of people they disliked or got frustrated with. It was a decent enough idea; she didn't want to leave the notebook there. Again, like Kohaku, she could've easily picked up the Death Note herself, but merely didn't wish to, for her own reasons. "Imagine if it got into the hands of someone who'd throw it away or maybe somebody who'd use it for evil," Sakae hypothetically stated. "They would start killing everybody, good _and_ bad. They would even try sculpting their own perfect little world, a place where they are a ruler of all things." Chills ran down her spine at the mere thought of the notebook actually being legit. "It's kinda scary, thinking about it like that."

"See?!" Kohaku gestured towards Sakae, her eyes on Light. "Sakae gets it. Sorta. In a way. Whatever." She waved her hand before placing it on her shoulder bag, such motion causing it to knock against her side, and she made a face of pain when she felt the edge of a textbook nudging against her torso momentarily. She shifted her bag, so she was no longer being stabbed by the books within. "I still think we should keep it, even if it magically becomes real somehow. Pretty sure it's a prank or an unfinished, discarded game but still, let's take it."

Light stared at the females for a moment before finally saying something. "Fine." He strolled back over to them and quickly picked up the notebook. "I still think the concept is lame," he added on. Although he wasn't _as_ intrigued as the females, he was still a bit interested because it was new, in a sense; it was a different take on something he had seen before and that was about as fascinating as it got for him. He placed it into his bag quickly. "I can't believe you guys think it's real."

"Let's hope we never find out the truth!" Sakae suddenly exclaimed, making both best-friends cover their ears. "Oops, sorry. I meant, uh, let's hope we never discover this to be an actual thing I hypothesized? Was that better? A little bit, maybe?" she asked, using a quieter tone. Surprisingly, after that outburst, no one had looked in their direction.

Kohaku rubbed her ears, making a face of irritation. "Well, anything's possible. I mean, there's always, like, a three-to-five percent chance of something being likely, even when it's highly unlikely to be so. Did that make sense? I hope it did." She wasn't a large believer of the impossible, but she kept her mind open to the possibility that she was wrong to be a nonbeliever of most things.

Light thought for a second. "Hmm, you really think so?"

"I wouldn't have stated it if I thought otherwise, idiot," Kohaku commented, half-smiling. It was a rarity to get a full smile from her and she had plenty of excuses for why, often blaming it on her life at home. Who could really blame her for that when her parents often argued, between each other rather than at her, about her lifestyle.

Sakae slightly smiled. "As the saying goes, nothing is truly impossible." She paused, thinking about what she said, before shrugging. "Well, something like that, anyways."

"Close enough," Kohaku remarked, waving her hand nonchalantly.

Light glanced down at his bag, where the Death Note resided. "I suppose you're right."

* * *

The whistling of a train sounded through the atmosphere as it passed by, travelers waiting patiently for it to do so. Once it was out of sight, everyone began crossing the railroad again as they continued on their merry way. Soon enough, the best-friends were walking along the sidewalk again. As per usual, they were heading to Light's home; after all, that was their hideout. "There must be something wrong with us to even consider it," Light suddenly commented, speaking in a low tone as they walked amongst the crowd of various townspeople.

Kohaku hummed. "I suppose you're right about that one, Light, but, uh, didn't you say that you didn't believe in its supposed magical traits? So, that being said, you shouldn't even be worrying about it, you non-believer." She paused. "Anyways, maybe we should've left it for someone else to find, like its actual owner. I mean, there's a high chance that it's just an unfinished prank or game..." She sighed. "Even so, I guess we couldn't take the risk of another person seeking it out, leaving us only with unsated curiosity." Pressing her finger to her lips, she thought over things, walking in between her friends continuously. "Hmm."

"What's boiling inside that head of yours, Kohaku?" Sakae asked, glancing towards her.

"Let me look at it for a minute," Kohaku commanded, looking towards Light. He immediately pulled the Death Note from his bag, without question, along with a normal notebook and handed both to her. Quickly understanding the meaning behind the additional journal, Kohaku hid the Death Note inside of the other notebook, keeping it from prying eyes. Shortly afterwards, she flipped through the pages of the death notebook as she occasionally glanced up to make sure she wouldn't ram into anything. "Hmm?" She sighed. "Goddamn it, I was hoping that somebody already written in here, that way we'd know for certain if this was just a prank, failed experiment, or whatever you wanna call it." All of the pages were empty of handwriting. She shrugged. " _Well_ , then again, maybe some pages were ripped out or something."

Sakae seemed confused, additionally mishearing her friend's words. "Wait, some of the pages are missing?"

Kohaku shook her head. "No, I said _maybe_ some had been ripped out, but I don't really know for certain, _yet_. Hold on a moment." She double, even triple, checked the entirety of the notebook, only to find no sign of tampering. "Damn it all. Nothing has been ripped outta this thing, so that possibility is at a fucking zero and outta the goddamn window. Fucking hell."

"Out of curiosity, are you only making these calculations just to seem smarter than you actually are?" Light questioned, only halfway teasing.

"Fuck you and your douche-assery," Kohaku commented, staring continuously at the Death Note as she walked with her friends. "And for your information, asshole, that wasn't any sort of calculation; that was common sense, something you don't seem to have right now." She suddenly felt herself being nudged in Sakae's direction and she glanced away from the Death Note, glaring at Light for pushing her. "Fuck you twice, Light Yagami. Don't make me say it thrice," she stated before looking back at the notebook, soon beginning to think of other possibilities concerning it. Within minutes, she began mumbling to herself, ignoring the presence of her friends. "No pages ripped out, there's the chance this shit is real, there's also the chance that I'm missing something obvious, and then, there's the almighty almost fact of this just being some game-slash-prank. Although, if I'm completely honest, whilst the concept is pretty decent, this is a very poor excuse for a prank because the creator didn't bother making it more believable. How intriguing, though..." She flipped through the pages again, but at a slower pace, trying to spot any form of signature that may had been written.

While listening to Kohaku mumble about the Death Note, Light and Sakae began seeing why she didn't have very many friends; originally, they thought that she just avoided most people and found said mundanes ( _her words, not theirs_ ) to be annoying but as they eyed her, it seemed more on the lines of everyone being aware that she was a very odd individual with massive anger problems. "Ummm, Kohaku? Are you gonna join us on Earth again sometime soon?" Sakae asked, nudging her gently.

Kohaku blinked, breaking from her train of thought. She glanced over at Sakae as they walked. "Hmm? What is it? Do you need something? Did you say something?"

Sakae laughed a little. "No, I didn't say anything and I don't need anything either. I just... Well, you seem like you're having a lot of fun with trying to figure out this whole notebook ordeal. It's not often when I get to see you actually enjoying yourself, you know."

Kohaku shrugged. "It's not a big deal, Sakae. It's just something new for me to obsess over for a short while. There are plenty more mysteries in this world that I'll _eventually_ go nuts over, but right now, this notebook is by far the greatest we've discovered. Well, it _probably_ is; we haven't actually discovered many mysteries up until this point but we will, eventually. Anyway, I'm just gonna enjoy my moments of thinking whilst this is all still fresh on my mind because who knows how long it'll be before the _next_ greatest mystery comes to light."

"Well, it's certainly a puzzle that needs to be solved," Light commented. He glanced at the notebook, which remained in Kohaku's grasp, before looking towards the aforementioned female. "Do you think you can come up with an answer?" Prank or not, the meaning for its existence needed to be learnt.

Kohaku sighed. "There's only one way to solve this little mystery of ours." She closed both notebooks, handing them back to Light; he didn't place them inside his bag right away, his attention staying on her. "However, I don't think you two are gonna like it." She thought over her phrasing. "Uh, that meaning you'll probably just find it boring and it also might ruin all of the fun behind this topic."

Together, Light and Sakae spoke. "And what would that be?"

Kohaku stopped walking, her friends pausing along with her. She stared at them, clenching onto the strap of her shoulder bag; it was starting to cause minor discomfort to her shoulder but she welcomed that dull pain with open arms as it kept her in touch with the reality of their 'situation'. "Guys, seriously? Is it not that obvious?" She shook her head. "To prove if it's authentic or faux, we'll have to write down a name. Test the waters, you know."

"You mean kill somebody?!" Sakae yelled. Immediately realizing her mistake, she gulped and nervously smiled at the townspeople around them, the passing folks giving her various looks as they continued their walking. " _I shouldn't have yelled that..."_

Kohaku frowned at her. "Well, yes, but that's only if this turns out to be completely real. Since it _isn't_ , you shouldn't be so worried about that happening. As much as I like the _idea_ of it being real, I don't really see it as being such. I know I've said there are possibilities of the impossible being possible, but this is just a little bit too far fetched. So, like, calm your tits already. Everything will be fucking fine." She was still hoping for some authenticity, though; life was boring as it was and if the Death Note could really kill people, they'd be doing the world a favor by getting rid of the wicked.

"I think..." Light paused as he placed the notebooks into his bag. Afterwards, he placed his palm against his chin, additionally closing his eyes momentarily as he thought things over. Shortly thereafter, he opened his eyes and stared at the females, lowering his hand. "I believe it's in our best interest that we only put the name of a criminal; that way, their death is justifiable." He paused. "If it's real, of course."

"That's precisely what I had in mind, you sudden believer of unlikely odds," Kohaku remarked. "We'll figure this out more when we get to your place."

* * *

Sitting at his desk, with his hand resting against his cheek and his elbow propped on the desktop, Light stared down at the Death Note. Kohaku and Sakae stood behind him, looking over his shoulders so they, too, could read the rules of the notebook. For the first time in a long while, the three of them had something to do together that didn't involve random conversation start-ups or studying; the notebook was for their eyes alone, something that would remain a secret amongst themselves.

"'This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his or her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected'," Kohaku quoted, lifting a finger to her lips after finishing. "Hmm." Tapping her lips twice, she moved her finger away. "Well, that's interesting. Plus, it makes a lot of sense. Whoever, or whomever, created this, they made sure not to leave any holes in the usage of it." In less confusing words, there seemed to be no gaps in the concept.

Sakae quoted the following rules on the displaying page. "'If the cause of death is written within forty seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next six minutes and forty seconds'. Oh my goodness." That rule alone scared the crap outta her; not only could someone be killed with a simple heart attack, they could die from anything that was even remotely possible. It was terrifying. She hoped, and prayed, to the angels above them that the Death Note was just a prank.

"So, depending on the person you have in mind, you can either kill them easily or painfully," Light remarked, staring at the displayed rules. "This is pretty detailed for a prank, I'll give them that."

"I'm beginning to believe that it's not just some stupid prank," Kohaku commented, moving from her standing position behind Light. She sat comfortably on his bed, unintentionally ruining the sheets that would've gotten messed up anyways. Very few things floated around in her mind as she kept her eyes towards her friends; ' _is it just an abandoned game, then?'_ was one thought. She didn't even wanna think about it being real, 'least not until she saw some proof because she didn't want her hopes getting too high. "By this point, it seems more like a game someone made and they got bored before they even started playing it."

Sakae glanced towards Kohaku momentarily before looking back at the Death Note. "It's far too intricate, so I have to agree with you on that one; as you stated, this doesn't seem like a prank but more of a game that was made, yet never actually played. It's kind of twisted, though, so maybe they just...chickened out or something." She crossed her arms over her chest. She wanted to chicken out, too, but her curiosity was getting the best of her again; she wanted to see what would happen, despite that nothing bad could possibly occur...

"Maybe. Who cares about that, though? It's our game now," Kohaku stated, kicking her legs as she watched her friends from the bed, half-smiling. "So, go ahead, Light. Write a fucking name already." She was a tad bit excited, even with the chances of failure and nothingness; it was still something new.

"Wait." Light turned in his seat, looking at Kohaku in return. Not only was he having some doubts, he was having hopes too, along with worries. "On the off chance that someone really dies, would that make me a murderer?" He was gonna put the name of a criminal, sure, but he needed some reassurance that he wouldn't be deemed a monster in return.

Kohaku raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh, wasn't it _your_ brilliant idea to put down a name of a criminal, so that killing him, or her, would be more 'justifiable'?" She sighed, like per usual, shortly after speaking and shrugged. "I'm honestly not really sure about that, Light. I mean, I suppose you would be considered a murderer regardless, depending on how people would look at it if you were to continue killing off the bad guys." She removed herself from the bed, stepping towards him. She placed a hand to her chest. "I'll write the goddamn name myself if that little fact bothers you," she suggested, lowering her hand. "I have absolutely nothing to lose. _Apart_ from you two, of course."

"No. I'm fine, but thanks anyway," Light declined, turning in his seat so that he was staring down at the Death Note once more. He flipped through the pages, turning away from the rules and onto a lined page that held no words. He picked up a mechanical pencil, which was laying beside the notebook, and was ready to begin writing a name. Except first, they needed to get said forename, and surname, of a criminal and they additionally needed a way to see if that bastard died or not.

Sakae dropped her arms to her sides, placing her hands at rest on her hips. "Now, the real question is this; whose name should be put down?" As terrified as she was about the possibility of it being a real thing, she had much bigger hopes that it was fake, so it lessened her anxiety by a fraction and additionally was the reason why she was still willing to go through with that mess.

"Oh, that's easy. Just turn on the television and watch the news broadcast. There's bound to be some asshole doing something somewhere. There's never no goddamn peace on this fucking planet," Kohaku commented. "It's likely gonna be live, too, so that'll help us know if he, or she, actually fucking dies."

Agreeing, Light turned on the small television; it was located on a stand right beside the desk. Immediately, they noticed that the station was already on some live news broadcast, so they left it as it was. Shown on the screen, straight from a helicopter, stood a large daycare center. The three glanced at one another briefly before they placed their sights back onto the television, never voicing how convenient that was. The voice of a male newscaster could suddenly be heard as the display remained the same. "The same assailant who attacked six people yesterday at a busy shopping district in _Shinjuku_ has struck again, taking eight people hostage at this daycare center." The displaying screen switched over to another camera, which was pointed at the speaking newscaster. "His captives include both children and teachers." Once more, the display changed to something else, it being a photo of an almost middle-aged man with cropped brown hair and small black eyes. "The police have now identified the suspect as forty-two year old Kurou Otoharada, currently unemployed. We expect negotiations to begin immediately."

"Hmm." Kohaku continuously stared at the television. "Somehow, I doubt that," she uttered, commenting on the final sentence stated. She hoped the Death Note would work because if it didn't, that criminal was likely to go down fighting and he'd be taking innocent lives with him in the process.

Sakae glanced towards the desk, seeing that Light was writing the criminal's name. She glimpsed at his expression and took notice of how collected he was. She watched as he glanced at the clock on the wall above them. Humming to herself, she listened to him mumble. "A heart attack in forty seconds. We'll see." For a few short moments, she watched him before looking back at the television, just as he did the same.

Kohaku looked towards Light. "Did you actually do it? Did you write his name?" Without receiving an answer, she glanced at the Death Note to see that he had indeed written down the name. "Huh, I guess you weren't kidding, after all." She hadn't expected him to go through with it, originally thinking he'd chicken out or something. She was happy to be wrong, for once. Silently, she looked back at the television.

Kohaku, Light, and Sakae quietly listened to the newscasters as little-to-no information was added on about what was occurring at the crime scene. The aforementioned male glanced away from the television again to look back at the clock, noting that forty seconds had already gone by. He looked back towards the television, speaking up when nothing changed on the screen. "Looks like it didn't work," he announced. "I didn't expect it to, anyway."

He picked up the remote for the television, making a move to turn it off. However, Kohaku grabbed ahold of his wrist and shook her head when he looked at her questionably; she wanted him to wait, just in case the death of the criminal was a bit slow on the dot. Sure enough, it kinda was because in a matter of seconds, something new displayed on the screen; the hostages were running out of the daycare center, unharmed. "The hostages are coming out!" the newscaster exclaimed in disbelief. "They all look to be unharmed!" Displaying on the screen, Special Forces were shown charging into the center with their shields and all, ready to take down the culprit. "The Special Forces are taking action; they're moving in!" Seconds passed by and nothing else was being shown, but new information was being given out to those watching it all unfold. "We don't know if the suspect has been arrested." Almost immediately afterwards, the newscaster was shown and he appeared to be surprised. "We now have confirmation. The suspect has been found dead inside. I repeat, the suspect is now dead."

Light's eyes widened, shock filling him. "Dead?" he questioned aloud. _It actually worked?! No, it couldn't have..._ Perhaps the suspect was shot to death by the police force that rampaged into the building. _Yeah, that has to be it!_ As he stared at the screen in continued surprise, Sakae had her mouth hanging open as she, too, was taken aback by what happened, unable to believe her eyes. Kohaku, on the other hand, was smirking in pleasure, happy about the man dying, but she believed it to be just a mere coincidence because the cops did, in fact, run into the building to get the bastard.

After several moments, the newscaster started speaking again as he revealed additional information about what was happening. "The Special Forces are denying allegations that they shot the suspect. Speculations have arose, theories of suicide spreading like wildfire in the crowd surrounding the scene. However, according to statements from the hostages, the suspect just suddenly collapsed."

Sakae blinked, breaking out of her surprised state. _Mostly_. She continued watching the screen of the television, still unable to believe what happened. "It actually worked?" That just couldn't be possible; it defied all logic that existed in the universe before that moment. _Maybe I'm asleep?_ Pinching herself on the arm as roughly as she could manage, she gulped when realizing that she wasn't just dreaming. Maybe there was a logical explanation to why the guy suddenly passed on to the afterlife. _Maybe he coincidentally had a heart attack from stress?_

Light stood from his chair, still in a state of shock. "N-No way," he denied with a stutter. He faced Kohaku and Sakae, both looking at him in return. "It's just a coincidence. It has to be."

"I'll say," Kohaku agreed, hands placed slightly above her hips. "That was one hell of a coincidence." She glanced back at the television screen, her smirk making a reappearance. "All things considered, I'm happy that the bastard is dead and gone. He can't hurt anyone ever again."

Suddenly, Mrs. Sachiko Yagami, the beautiful mother of Light, called to them from downstairs. All she stated was that they would be late for cram school if they continued on with what they were doing, though she said it in a very formal, polite, and motherly manner. Having no time to think things over, Light chose to quickly place the Death Note inside his bag and soon enough, the three were exiting his bedroom.

Little did they know that everything was about to change, permanently...

* * *

It was getting into the final hours of cram school. Most were using their remaining time to do absolutely nothing that could, or would, help them progress in life, instead just wasting time socializing; that was to be expected, but perhaps some of them had worked very hard. Each desk within the room was made for two students, most chairs taken except for four. The three best-friends were sitting in various places, not exactly near one another; Kohaku was alone in a desk up front, Light was sitting alone two seats behind her, and Sakae was sitting at the far back with a temporary companion. Out of everyone there, those three were the only ones that seemed to be continuing their studies, _for the most part_.

While Kohaku and Sakae were studying, Light's mind was on other matters; the Death Note, for instance. He was thinking about writing another name, only to be certain that the first death had only been a coincidence. If he actually had succeeded in killing someone, he wasn't certain what he was going to do about it. Part of him wanted to toss the book in the trash and forget he ever saw it, all without writing another name, but the other part of him wished to see if he had actually done some good by ridding the world of that criminal. If it was all real, maybe he could use the notebook to fix the cruelty on the planet. He just needed the perfect second test subject. _But who?_

He was pulled from his thoughts, his attention placed on the conversation commencing just a seat ahead of him, towards his right side. Sudou, a young male with unkempt cropped black hair, brown eyes, and a signature black hoodie sweater over jeans, was speaking to an overweight, nerdy-looking classmate named Ryo and it was clear that his intentions were impure. "Hey, Ryo, buddy," the bully began, slyly smirking as he stared down at the male. He held out his palm, his smirk and gaze never faltering. "Didn't you want to lend me twenty dollars?"

As Light listened to Ryo fearfully complain to Sudou about the money, he started his thinking process again. " _Maybe I should try killing him._ " However, he immediately dismissed the idea. " _No, I should definitely avoid killing people I know. Then again, does it even really matter? I mean, would anyone really care if a guy like him was to disappear one day?_ " He continued eyeing them as Ryo reluctantly handed Sudou the money that was demanded. " _I better not risk it._ "

Whilst that was occurring, Kohaku was tapping her foot against the marbled floor furiously where she sat. She no longer cared about studying further because her mind was on the conversation that took place; the entire time she listened, she got another level closer to wishing that she could violently rip Sudou's head off his torso. She was sick and tired of his bullshit; he was constantly picking on those who supposedly were on a lower level than him. She was gonna do something about it. Perhaps once she was finished with him, he'd fucking stop his harassment.

Back where Light was sitting, he sighed and looked down at his notebook. He was prepared to study again and take his mind off the Death Note for a while. However, he became distracted when someone slightly brushed against his arm. Glancing towards his left, he spotted Sakae. "Sakae?" he lightly questioned, raising an eyebrow at her. She remained silent, putting a finger to her lips in a gesture for him to be quiet. Then, she pointed towards the front of the room. Light, his eyebrow still raised, looked towards where she was pointing and he spotted Kohaku. His expression became one of confusion before it switched to one of surprise; he watched as his friend stood up from her seat, fists clenched like she was being angered by something. His eyes trailed her movements and quickly, he came to realize that she was approaching Sudou. "What the hell is she thinking?" he mumbled, shaking his head slightly in disapproval. He glanced at Sakae. "And how did you even know she was mad?" He didn't get an answer.

Kohaku approached Sudou and his laughing goon confidently, believing she would win the battle that was to commence between herself and the main bully. The goon, with his back towards the approaching teen, was unaware of her arrival until Sudou nodded in the female's direction, making him turn around to face her. "Give him back the money, Sudou, before things get uglier than your face," Kohaku demanded, hands on her hips.

"Ouch," Sudou commented as he took several steps forward, maneuvering around the desk to be directly in front of Kohaku, pushing his goon aside in the process. He placed his hand to his chest, making a false expression of hurt. "That one got me really good, Kohaku." He smiled slyly at her as he lowered his arm, chuckling. "It's been a while since I had the pleasure of talking to you. Two weeks, right?" She just glared at him. "So, what makes you think that the money is his, hmm?"

Kohaku stared at him with a blank expression, removing her hands from her hips. Despite the lack of emotion shown on her face, her fists clenched again and she felt another intense urge to knock out Sudou's teeth. Instead of doing as she wished, she kept calm. _Mostly_. "I saw you take it from him, ass-face," she falsely stated. She actually hadn't seen anything, just heard it occurring, but she wasn't about to let him know that information; it would be used against her, otherwise.

Sudou smirked at her, shaking his head while waving his hand, which held the money that he took. He technically hadn't stolen it; he just threatened the nerd indirectly to get it from him. "I got this money fair and square, doll face, so it's mine. Now, go cry about it elsewhere and leave me to my winnings." He made a move to place the money into his pocket, but paused as an idea crossed his mind. Keeping the item of interest in hand, he reached towards Kohaku's face with his other hand. "Better yet." He started stroking her cheek in a creepy manner. "Maybe you can convince me to give it back. How about that date I've been asking for? We'd make a great pair, you and-"

Kohaku hadn't liked him touching her face, but was entirely happy with making him regret that decision. She raised her hand and grabbed onto his, twisting his wrist enough that it caused him some minor discomfort. Next, her fist connected with his abdomen without a moment of hesitation. _That should teach him_. She released his wrist and watched him hunch over in pain. Unintentionally, Sudou released his grip on the money and it began falling to the floor as he held his abdomen with both arms. Swiftly, she caught the money, long before it hit the floor, and leaned over the nearby desk, handing the money back to Ryo. "Put it someplace where they can't get it, preferably off of your person next time. You're fucking welcome." With that stated, Kohaku started making her way back to her own seat as she ignored the dumbfounded goon and the grunting Sudou.

After several seconds went by, Sudou stopped his grunting and stood up correctly. "That bitch," he growled, glaring at the back of Kohaku's head. He pointed towards her, looking at his goon as he started yelling, the entire room putting their eyes on him; it was amazing how they ignored everything up until that moment. "What are you doing just standing there?! Stop gawking and teach her a fucking lesson!"

"But what if she hits back?" the goon whined, fear in his eyes. He didn't want to get hurt; hell, he was scared he'd lose his balls if Kohaku made any sort of violent move on him. He didn't care about looking pathetic; he just didn't wanna die.

Sudou howled in anger at his lackey, roughly hitting the wimp's arm; the answer only added fuel to the fire. His friend released a whimper, rubbing his arm as he stepped away from the angry male. "Are you seriously being a fucking wimp right now?!" Sudou yelled at him, glaring. "Fine, I'll fucking do it myself!" He stormed over to Kohaku's desk, just as she was beginning to sit down. "You had no right doing that to me, you bitch! That was my money!" He slammed his hand onto the table, attempting to intimidate her.

Kohaku didn't flinch; she rolled her eyes. "No, it wasn't your goddamn money and I only did what I did because you pissed me off. However, I would've returned the money to its rightful owner regardless. Any decent human on this planet would've done the same. Now, leave me the fuck alone already. You've lost this battle, Sudou."

Sudou didn't walk away. "You saw that he handed me the money outta his own free will!"

Kohaku continued speaking calmly, even though she was still pissed. She didn't even bother fully looking at him, merely glancing. "He merely handed it over because you were freaking him out with your threats. If he didn't do as you wanted, you would've harmed him and he knew that, which is why he did as you asked. Right now, you continue trying to intimidate me into giving you what you wish, but I don't scare easily. You're only wasting everyone's time here."

"You stupid-!" Sudou was red with fury. "No one messes with me!" He lifted his fist and swung his arm, aiming for her face as he threw a punch. He didn't care if it was disrespectful or whatever; she deserved it. It was practically self defense.

Seeing the punch coming, Kohaku was able to stop it; she caught his fist mid-swing. "Are you finished yet? I would like to study a bit more before time's up." She resisted the urges to break his wrist that time around. From the corner of her eye, she saw his other hand twitch at his side. Expectedly, he took another swing at her with that hand and just like the first time, she managed to catch his hand. Additionally, she forced his fist to the side, causing him to hit himself in the face. She released her hold on his fists as he stepped away from her, holding his face as he constantly checked to see if he was bleeding. Mentally, Kohaku cheered; despite the awkward positioning, she managed to hurt him like she wanted. "Are you done now, asshole?" she asked.

Sudou glared at her, hands over his nose. He didn't make another move towards her, finally backing down. "You'll rue this day, Kohaku." Lowering his hands from his face, he revealed the light amounts of blood that dripped from his nose. He started walking backwards. "You better watch your ass because one of these days, I'll get you back for this." He turned away from her and headed out the door, his goon hurrying after him.

"Somehow, I highly doubt that," Kohaku mumbled, letting out a sigh of relief after he left. She instantly relaxed in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest as she started contemplating her actions in that previous moment. Maybe he would return to get revenge, maybe he wouldn't; unless he showed up with a handful of goons, he was unlikely to willingly show his face around her again. With that in mind, she opted to keep a close eye out for him, in case she was wrong to doubt the bully's threat. Caught up in her thoughts, she nearly missed the sudden round of applause that the other students were giving her. Blushing, she avoided eye contact with everyone, placing her attention on her notebook.

Somewhere behind Kohaku, Light and Sakae were staring in awe; they had already known that their mutual friend was often getting into altercations that could've been avoided, but still. Despite the fact that they were always told by Kohaku that no one else's drama was her problem, she tended to get involved anyways. Maybe someday, she'd stop denying how good of a person she was deep down. "Dang," Sakae whispered. "I love it when she stands up for others. She crushed his pride without hesitation."

Light nodded in agreement. "Men like that, they seek to crush people just to boost their ego. I'm glad she brought him down. No one else was brave enough to do it." Scholarships would've flown out the window if a teacher had walked in during the confrontation; thankfully, Kohaku didn't give a fuck about anything except doing something she thought was right. That was something he could respect, even though he didn't approve of her violent nature.

Humming, Sakae twirled her pencil on the table; she absentmindedly brought it with her for no apparent reason. "I hope it doesn't come back to bite her in the behind." Releasing a sigh, she stood and looked down at Light, smiling kindly. "We should go back to concentrating on our studies, Light. We'll talk again soon." He nodded at her and watched as she headed back towards her seat. Shortly afterwards, he stared down at his desk and started thinking about the Death Note again...

* * *

Kohaku, Light, and Sakae walked down the darkened street in silence, each thinking of something different before their thoughts eventually aligned to be about the Death Note. The aggressive female of the bunch originally thought about Sudou, wondering if he'd live up to his threat and was starting to consider writing his name down inside the death notebook to be rid of him; however, she dismissed that because it was too risky. The calmer female had been thinking about her brother before her thoughts turned sour when her parents' murderers came to mind; she thought about writing their names, but immediately regretted it and felt horrible for wishing to stoop to their level of cruelty.

As they continued walking, they grew closer to the location of a convenience store that was still open. Upon approaching the area around it, the three quickly realized that a young woman was being surrounded and harassed by a group of men on motorcycles. Overhearing a few remarks from the leader, they knew the men had horrible intentions for the poor woman. Additionally, the fact that such a horrific crime was going to be performed in a public area made the situation more disgusting; surely, the workers inside the store could hear the commotion, but why didn't they come to the rescue?

The teens headed inside the brightly lit convenience store, but not before hearing the name of the leader trying to condemn the woman to sexual assault. Immediately, they walked over to the magazine-stand that was leaning against the window, which displayed the scene occurring outside. "We need to help her and soon, Light," Kohaku calmly stated, watching as the male picked up a random magazine from the stand. "I don't wanna witness a rape." He opened the magazine. "And I sure as hell don't wanna murder someone with my bare fucking hands, but if you get any slower, I might not have a choice."

Sakae appeared panicked, her eyes focused on the events happening outside. Thankfully, the woman was still clothed, but that was unlikely to last for much longer. "Whatever it is that you two have in mind, please do it quickly... I don't think we have much time to spare and neither does she..." _What if it doesn't work? What will they do then_? Would the cops be called? Would they run out to stop the act themselves? So many things could go wrong... _And I won't be of much help because..._ No, she didn't want to think about the past again.

"We fucking know that, Sakae," Kohaku aggressively stated, digging into Light's bag when he failed to pull out the Death Note quicker. With the notebook in her grasp, she opened and hid it amongst the pages of the open magazine. She dug into the bag again, pulling out a pencil; she handed it over to him. "You'll have a far better chance at correctly spelling his name than I will," she told him, upon receiving a confused look from the male. He nodded, not questioning her, and took the pencil. Immediately, he started writing the man's name in various different spellings, filling up an entire page as he hoped one was correct; the cause of death was to be a traffic accident. They only had to wait.

Outside the convenience store, the motorcycle gang was already beginning to make their advances on the woman. The leader, Takuo Shibuimaru, was holding her captive, using a pipe to keep her against him as one of his men started unbuttoning the woman's jeans hurriedly, an evil smirk on their faces. Somehow, whether it was from sheer luck or the mysterious powers of the Death Note, the woman managed to get free and she started running across the street, away from the store. Not wanting her to get away, Takuo gave chase on his motorcycle. Despite the warnings that his goons shouted to him, as soon as the woman was safely off the street and on the opposite sidewalk, a truck smashed straight into Takuo, killing him instantly upon impact. Debris from what remained of the motorcycle flew in the air as the truck continued on its way, never stopping.

Light stared in shock at the scene, unable to believe his eyes. Sakae was petrified, frozen in place from the sudden fear that entered her body. Kohaku was visibly pleased by what occurred, a smirk on her face as she stared at the debris, which laid motionless on the street. Out of the three, the latter was the most satisfied. "The Death Note, it's actually real," Light mumbled. It hadn't been a coincidence; he had actually killed someone, two people. For a moment, he felt a little guilty for killing them; in fact, he kinda felt sick to his stomach.

Sakae managed to find her voice after a moment, shaking in fright as she looked towards her best-friends. That was unbelievable and terrifying; all of them were practically responsible for killing two people. _Why did we find that stupid notebook? Why did we keep it?_ "This is..." She gulped, raising her shaking hands to her face, placing them on her cheeks. "I can't believe it's real. This... This isn't natural. We defied logic completely. We did something horrible, _twice_. We're going to hell for this, aren't we?" It was a horrifying power to have and she hated it. Additionally, she had some mixed feelings; it wasn't in the wrong hands, thankfully, but it wasn't necessarily in the right hands either. She wished it wasn't real...

"No way," Kohaku remarked, looking at Sakae. "We're doing the world a fucking favor here. Who cares if we're defying the logic of the universe? I think this notebook is pretty damn awesome. Sure, we killed, like, two people, but it was for the greater good." She placed her attention on the Death Note, which Light closed. Luckily for them, the workers inside the store were nowhere to be seen. "With this, we can rid the world of all sorts of evil beings. Just think about it." She looked back at her frowning companion. "You said something earlier today, something about how someone could use this to sculpt a perfect world. Something like that. Maybe we can do it. We were meant to find this notebook, I'm sure of it." She glanced towards Light and smiled at him. "I think you should continue being the one who has control over it, Light. I mean, why not? You're the one who wrote the names."

Light's eyes widened in surprise. He expected her to proclaim herself as the true owner, not him. As quickly as it appeared, his surprise vanished and he smiled back. She was right; they could rid the world of evil and make it perfect. He was completely fine with continuing the extinction of crime; the world needed fixing and they were the only ones who could do it. "Alright," he agreed as he placed the Death Note into his bag again. "But why don't you want to be the owner?"

"Well, technically, all of us are the owners; you're just the one who gets to keep and use it the most," Kohaku clarified. "Also, like I said, you wrote the names. Plus, you found it first. Therefore, you should be the rightful owner. You can be in charge of writing more names and we," she gestured towards Sakae and herself, "We can help you get names, using the wonderful and amazing internet. We'll make an epic team of problem solvers."

Sakae was the only one against it and she took her time with stating such. "...Y-You actually want to do this, Kohaku?" she stuttered in disbelief. She could understand why Light was so ready to go along with it; their friend was very convincing. Still, she didn't think Kohaku's mind could so easily enter such a darkened place. "This isn't right, you guys. W-We can't just go around killing criminals. For starters, not all of them are guilty. Secondly, some of them can change for the better if given the chance; we can't deprive them of that. Lastly, it's just wrong." Everything would change if they continued...

Kohaku shook her head, crossing her arms. She didn't say anything, though; her mind was set. She glanced over at Light, gesturing with her head for him to say something instead; he'd have a better time convincing Sakae than she would. He nodded shortly at her before looking at their companion. "Sakae, I get that you want them to have second chances, and most manage to get it, but you know what they do once they're free? They kill, they steal, and they rape; they never learn their lesson. We can stop them. We can save our world and make it better, safer. We were given this gift and we should do some good with it."

Sakae hesitated. "H-How can you both be thinking this? Killing people, even if they do deserve it, is not the way we should solve the world's problems. The world was meant to be impure and imperfect. Using this notebook, we're just gonna corrupt ourselves." She looked between her best-friends, looking for signs of agreement; she saw nothing. She sighed lowly, her frown remaining. "You're... You're both really gonna do this? Even you, Light?" she questioned, getting close to her breaking point. She knew, deep down, that she was gonna end up agreeing with them, only because they were her friends. Besides, if she said no, she felt that would only cause trouble; she didn't want that.

"It's not gonna corrupt anyone, Sakae," Light stated, standing his ground. "If anything's corrupted, it's this planet we're stuck on. It's better for the good to thrive than the wicked. We need to do this." Sakae cringed a little at his words and slowly began to become more upset by the fact that she was the only one that didn't want any part in it.

Kohaku stared at Sakae intensely. "Are you with us, Sakae, or are you against us?"

With another small sigh and a moment of hesitation, Sakae stared at her two best-friends silently before finally answering. She knew it would come to it, knew that she'd be pressured into sticking with them. "Do I really have a choice in this matter?" she quietly questioned before sighing again. "I... I would never try to go against my friends, especially my best and closet ones. So, yeah, I guess I'm in." She wasn't very enthusiastic about it and was certain that they noticed, but neither seemed to show any dislike for her lack of excitement. Light placed his hand on her shoulder and he smiled a little, happy with her decision. Kohaku cheered in a slightly quiet manner. Sakae just nodded shortly as she stared at them. She still didn't like it one bit...

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 **Fact One: The part where Light translates the reading into Japanese; we said Japanese cause it made no sense for him to translate it into English (which is basically what they are speaking anyways in the English Dub). I always thought that part in the show was completely stupid.**

 **Fact Two: I made Sudou flirt with Kohaku, only because it gave him more of a reason to be speaking with her in that moment. Therefore, the tiny backstory between him and her was created. So, yeah, you'll be seeing him again. Eventually.**

 **Fact Three: The final scene was shortened. How? I only had the main characters talking, merely describing the scene that was taking place before their eyes. I didn't think the dialogue for the attempted rapists and female victim were all that important to keep within the story. Furthermore, I'd like to inform you that quite a few scenes from the previous version will be either cut short or they'll vanish altogether, only to be explained in some sort of fashion. For example, I'll likely take out any scenes that do not include Kohaku and/or Sakae; I'll let you know in the next chapter if I've made my mind up about this idea.**

 **Fact Four: At the beginning of each chapter and before the warnings, the description of each chapter will be shown.**

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 _ **Revamped Date: August 17th-25th, 2018; February 28th-March 3rd, 2019 (minor edits)**_ ** _; June 15th-August 1st, 2019 (more minor edits; removal of some irrelevant information)_**

 **Original Word Count: 4,575**

 **Word Count Before Re-Edit: 16,529**

 **New Word Count: 13,258**


	3. 02: Shinigami

_Shinigami ("God of Death" or "Death Spirit") are gods, or supernatural creatures, that invite humans toward death and can be seen to be present, or interpreted to be present, in certain aspects of Japanese religion and culture. Shinigami have been described as monsters and helpers, creatures of darkness, and fallen angels. Many cultures describe Shinigami as Death themselves._

 _[This description came directly from Wikipedia]_

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 **Warnings:** _Errors of Any Sort, Possible Out of Character Moments, Profanity, Violence, Some Cringe Worthy Descriptions/Dialogue (Sorry, Not Sorry), Another Main (ish) Canon Character Introduced,_ _Some Characters Talk More Than Others, Plenty of Convenience, Realistic (To An Extent), Info Drops_

 **Changes from Original Edition:** _Errors Were Fixed (However, Some New Ones May Have Arrived, Which Is Why I Left That As A Warning), Dialogue Was Slightly Altered/Added/Removed, and Descriptions Are Occasionally Better Than They Once Were_

 **Additional Information:** _If you're not aware, jaw dropping means that your mouth is open wide and you're surprised/shocked by something. I probably didn't need to keep this in (originally, it was mentioned at the end of the chapter in an author's note) but I decided to, just in case someone didn't know what it meant and they were too lazy to google it. You're fucking welcome. :)_

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Approximately five days had passed by since Kohaku, Light, and Sakae agreed to continue their usage of the Death Note, marking the date as December 3rd of 2006; as those days went by, Kohaku and Light remained ecstatic about making the world a better place by removing all the vile, pathetic criminals that continued roaming the Earth without consequence; Sakae, however, was still dreading the idea. During those approximate five days, the three best-friends killed quite a load of offenders, but only Light wrote the names; he hardly allowed the females to touch the notebook, only letting them glimpse at the names that were written within. He absolutely refused the idea of letting them write any names; Sakae was the only one that didn't complain because she never wanted to touch the notebook again; Kohaku, on the other hand, found it unfair that Light was having all the fun, but had hopes he'd change his mind about it eventually.

During the evening of _December 3rd_ , it was pouring rain like no tomorrow; the sky was gloomy as hell, all of its beauty out of sight, and it felt like death was floating, or even flying, through the atmosphere, ready to claim another innocent and/or sinful life of a bystander that crossed its endless path. Kohaku, Light, and Sakae entered the Yagami household, the former completely drenched from rainfall unlike her friends, both having been shielded by their shared umbrella; it was all good, though, because she totally enjoyed being soaking wet from the furious rain, except not really but whatever.

Upon entering the house, the friends were politely greeted by Light's caring mother, one after the other. She stood near the staircase, smiling brightly at them with her hands together in front of her person, clothed in casual wear. "What a pleasant surprise," she stated, her eyes focusing on her son momentarily. "I wasn't expecting you home so early, Light." Her attention turned towards Sakae, her cropped brown hair swaying slightly from the motion. "Welcome back, Sakae. It's always a pleasure to be seeing you again." In return, the teen in question greeted the woman kindly and with a pleasant smile. Lastly, the woman's attention was placed on Kohaku and her bright smile became a mixture of amusement and concern. "Oh, dear. Kohaku, surely you have an umbrella at home you could've used tonight?"

Kohaku grinned sheepishly at the woman, lifting her arm to rub the back of her water-soaked head. What had happened was she returned home after school instead of heading to Light's place before cram school, which resulted in her being so frustrated with her parents arguing that she left her house without proper protection from the rain. "I do own an umbrella, but I got so distracted that I completely forgot about the fact that it would start raining lions and wolves instead of cats and dogs," she stated, using a slightly different phrase since the rain was being brutal that night. "I don't mind a little harsh weather, though. It's definitely not the first time I've done this." She tended to forget things, thanks to frustration.

Mrs. Yagami shook her head slightly, still smiling; she was amused because what she was witnessing seemed so like Kohaku and she was concerned because the teen could become ill from her actions. "I don't doubt you." She gestured towards the staircase. "You're free to use our restroom to dry off as much as you can. I'm sure you can find some of the clothing you left behind. I don't want you walking around or sleeping in wet clothing until you return home; you could catch something."

"Thank you for your concern, Mrs. Yagami," Kohaku politely commented. She never wanted to make rude, or sarcastic, remarks to the woman, but only because she was a really kind woman; if she was anything but nice, words would fly. She walked by Light, water dripping onto the floor as she went; she'd have to clean up the water once she dried off, to avoid an unfortunate accident. Behind her, Sakae followed closely before making her way towards Light's bedroom to locate some of Kohaku's clothing; she found some almost immediately in the closet and, after giving the clothes to her friend in the bathroom, she headed back downstairs with a towel, cleaning up the water so no one would slip.

While the females were dealing with the little dilemma, Mrs. Yagami and Light had a very short conversation; firstly, the woman asked her son how everything went and got a positive response out of him; secondly, she didn't outright ask him to hand over his results of the nationwide exams but her son caught on quickly to what she wanted and handed over the paper with the scores, his mother praising him instantly; lastly, as Sakae was cleaning up the puddles of water, the woman asked her darling son if there was anything he, or the girls, wanted but both politely declined the offer before they headed upstairs. Light informed his mother not to disturb their studying as he reached the top step of the stairs.

When Light and Sakae entered the darkened bedroom, they immediately found Kohaku already inside; she was sitting on his bed, messing with the towel over her head as she tried drying off her hair. She was dressed in dull, wrinkled, black clothing; her wardrobe was basically just dark-colored things and the occasional light-colored hoodie. She glanced up at Light and Sakae, but didn't utter a word. Sakae took a seat beside her on the bed as Light locked the door before he headed over to his desk across the bedroom. Kohaku gave up on drying her hair and her hands dropped to her lap, the towel left on her head. She glanced at Light, watching him as he turned on his lamp and pulled out the Death Note from his desk drawer, sitting down on his chair as he began looking through the various pages that were full of names. Sakae watched Light as well, a slight frown on her face.

As Light skimmed through the notebook of death, he maniacally laughed in a quiet manner as he eyed every single name he had written. He killed many criminals and it had barely been a week since he, and the girls, found the notebook. He had zero regrets whatsoever, completely satisfied with the work he had done; well, his friends had helped a little but he did most of the work. He kept his focus on the Death Note, ignoring all of his surroundings. Behind him, the females were eyeing him with different expressions; Kohaku looked disgusted and Sakae looked disturbed. "That's the worst maniacal laugh I've ever heard in my goddamn life," Kohaku whispered to her. "He really needs to work on it."

"I guess..." Sakae mumbled, not particularly caring about it. She was disturbed, yes, but not from the laughter itself; it was the fact that Light was changing right before her very eyes. Never in a million years did she think he'd become like that; the Death Note was already corrupting him. Kohaku, on the other hand, didn't seem that influenced by the notebook, considering she was the same as she always had been, except she was just helping kill people that probably didn't actually deserve their horrific fates. She glanced between her best-friends, worry filling her; she was afraid of them changing permanently. " _This was much a horrible plan... The Death Note is already causing harm to Light... He's beginning to scare me a little... I hope he doesn't go overboard with this... Kohaku, she hasn't changed much... I mean, I never expected her to be into killing people but other than that, she's the same person I knew back in elem._ " She placed her sight on something else, like the closet. " _I don't understand why Kohaku hasn't changed, but Light has. Could it be because he writes in the notebook? If that's the case, I'm glad I wasn't pressured into writing anything. I never wanted this to happen. I thought it was just a fake. I wish we threw it away when we had the chance..._ "

"You've taken quite a liking to it," a deep voice stated, breaking the friends out of their trances. Standing in the corner of the bedroom was a fairly humanoid looking Shinigami named Ryuk; he was extremely slim in appearance and had light gray skin, almost bluish in coloring, with spiky black hair; he had thin blue-gray lips and sharp-pointed teeth; he had a silver chain, with a heart at the end, hanging from his ear like an earring; his limbs were abnormally long in length; his fingers, thin and long, were coated with rings; he had large, round yellow eyes with bright red irises; lastly, though they couldn't be seen, he had retractable feather-like wings on his backside that enabled him to fly. He was a fascinating, and terrifying, creature, indeed.

Outside, the thunder crackled loudly. Light released a surprised yelp, falling out of his chair dramatically as he stared at Ryuk with wide eyes. Sakae quickly stood from the bed and immediately lost her footing, landing on the floor as she stared at the Shinigami, her eyes wide and her jaw dropped. Kohaku blinked in surprise but other than that, she didn't really react.

Ryuk kept his attention only on Light. Although he was entirely aware that the two females were inside the room with them, he ignored their presence since he was far more interested in the male. "No reason to act surprised. I am the Shinigami, Ryuk. That used to be my notebook. Judging by your laughter, you've already figured out that what you have is no ordinary notebook."

Light stared at Ryuk for a few additional seconds before he reached to grab the top of his rolling chair, pulling himself from the floor as his widened eyes returned to their natural state. His shocked, surprised expression vanished, replaced with temporary blankness. As he stood, Ryuk glanced over at the nearby females, seeing that Sakae still looked surprised, though she was no longer on the floor, and Kohaku appeared to be somewhat intrigued by his appearance, still residing on the bed. The Shinigami looked away from them, his attention on Light once more. "A Shinigami... A God of Death, huh?" Light questioned him in a calm tone. "Well, I'm not surprised." He smirked, his expression becoming something sinister. "In fact, Ryuk, I've been waiting for you."

Kohaku hadn't been sure what Light was going for when he started speaking to the Shinigami, but she quickly figured it out before scoffing; there was no way, in heaven or hell, that he merely acted like he was surprised. She shook her head, removing herself from the bed; the towel on her head fell to the floor because of her movement. She stared at Light in disbelief. "Bitch, please. I believe that's the biggest bloody lie I've ever fucking heard. If you had actually been expecting him, then why the hell did you fall out of your chair like that? Because of his appearance? Bitch, you should've been expecting that, too, so quit your lying. By the way, it was very dramatic and you're not that great of an actor. Just saying." Sakae mumbled in agreement as Kohaku moved to stand beside her. "Even Sakae's agreeing with me on that one. So, yeah, quit playing and be honest; you were scared shitless."

Light glared at Kohaku, but made no remarks of defense; instead, he kept his words to himself and looked back towards Ryuk. Kohaku grunted in displeasure, but said nothing more, her eyes landing on the Shinigami. Sakae placed her attention on him, too. "I've already figured out that this Death Note I found is real; it didn't take me long," Light stated, never mentioning his friends. "And now that I've witnessed the proof of its power, I only feel more confident in what I'm gonna do." Again, he didn't acknowledge the help he had gotten.

Once more, Kohaku scoffed. Then, she glared at him. "Fuck you, Light Yagami. If it weren't for Sakae and I, the Death Note wouldn't even be in your grasp right now." She gestured to herself. " _I_ came up with the idea to kill criminals. Sakae helps out sometimes and she keeps all this a secret from everybody. So, stop dismissing us for fuck sake and give us some goddamn credit, you attention whore."

Sakae gripped Kohaku's arm, holding it tightly. "Kohaku..." she whispered, gulping. She felt like thousands of eyes were staring upon her when in reality, no one was. "Please, let's just let them talk... It's alright..." _Who needs recognition anyways for something so horrible...?_ She was somewhat happy that Light wasn't entirely acknowledging their help with the matter, but alas, it additionally made her sad that he was becoming very egotistical, more so than he ever had been. Kohaku glanced towards Sakae, ultimately deciding to stay silent for a bit; the latter female was relieved.

Ryuk glanced at the three humans, taking in their words; he was becoming a bit more intrigued. He already had been interested in Light's potential, especially after noticing all the names written in the Death Note, but hearing the teen's self-confidence was fascinating. He didn't care all that much about the females; although, he was interested in seeing how things would turn out for them _when_ the aggressive female's obvious anger problems would create more conflict. "I certainly wasn't expecting this. Several Death Notes have made their way into the Human World in the past, but you're the first to have written this many names, especially in such a short period of time." He briefly glanced towards the females, giving them some credit _of sorts_. "And you're the first to have gotten a little outside help from friends." He looked towards the Death Note. "Just look at how many people you've killed together in only five days. Most are reluctant to write this much."

Kohaku remained silent. Sakae waited patiently for Light to respond, not wishing to say anything herself; she additionally continued holding onto Kohaku's arm, in case her friend was to suddenly fly off the handle again. "I've already prepared myself, Ryuk," Light said, his back facing the Shinigami. His hands were on his desk and he was staring at it. "I used the notebook, even though I knew that it belonged to a Shinigami and now, that Shinigami has come."

As Kohaku, Ryuk, and Sakae watched Light silently, the former of the bunch made an annoyed expression at the words he shared. She didn't believe him for a second; she damn well knew that he hadn't known such a thing when they first grabbed the notebook because all of them were pretty positive that it was fake, until they were proven wrong. " _Yeah, right! As if! He's probably just saying that so he doesn't look like a fool or something. Unless he's a really damn good actor, I don't believe any of the shit he's trying to pull. He wasn't saying anything about a Shinigami when we were killing people together. If he had actually known, he definitely would've let Sakae and I know about it. Light, maybe you can fool the Shinigami, but you sure as hell can't fool me, buddy boy._ "

Light continued staring at his desk as he spoke to Ryuk, his hands resting near the Death Note. "So, what will happen to me? You're here to take my soul, right?" he asked, making an assumption. "Kohaku and Sakae only touched the book; they never wrote in it. So, they should be safe from harm, right? You'll leave them be?" Again, he was just making assumptions. On the bright side of things, Sakae was happy to hear that he still cared about their safety.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" Ryuk questioned, his attention always on Light. "Is that some fantasy you humans came up with? I'm not gonna do anything to you or these girls." Light's eyes widened as he turned away from his desk, staring at Ryuk in surprise. Sakae seemed a bit flabbergasted by the information, too, but Kohaku didn't seem to care all that much. The Shinigami continued speaking. "The notebook becomes part of the human realm from the very moment it touches the Earth." He raised his arm, pointing towards Light. "In other words, the notebook is now yours."

Light grabbed the Death Note, staring at it. "This is mine?" he questioned in disbelief.

" _Ours, you asshole; it's ours."_ Kohaku rolled her eyes at him, keeping her thoughts to herself. " _We found it together and we kill people together, although the latter is more technical. However, he did touch it first so I guess he's the rightful owner, technically? I don't know. It's still not fair that he's taking the credit for everything, either way. Jackass._ " She bit her lower lip, holding back a remark; she didn't want to disappoint Sakae.

"If you don't want it, just give it to someone else," Ryuk stated. "But if you give it away, I'd have no choice but to erase all of your memories of the notebook." Those were the rules; unless Light remained the owner of the Death Note, the memories that he and his friends created involving it would be wiped clean from their minds. It was easier that way.

Sakae decided to speak up. "Wait. Before you continue, does that mean that none of us will be punished for doing this?" _Are we safe from harm?_ She already hated everything about the Death Note, but she wanted to be sure that they weren't in harm's way because of their actions with it.

"One can only hope," Kohaku uttered. As much as she was enjoying the killings, she didn't want to be punished for it; although, she merely gave names of the criminals but even so, she wanted to be certain that she'd be okay. If anyone were to be punished for doing what they were doing, it had to be Light; he was already getting a big head and was the one doing most of the work, anyway.

"Let's just say this," Ryuk began. "You will feel the fear and pain known only to humans who have used the notebook, and when it's your time to die, it will fall on me to write your name in my Death Note. Be warned, any human who's used a Death Note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell for eternity. That's all." He released a short maniacal laugh. "Now, you have something to look forward to after you die." His words seemed more directed towards Light; after all, he was the only one using the notebook, giving him the fate of oblivion.

"You know," Kohaku remarked, staring at Ryuk as he stared back momentarily. "A simple _yes or no_ would've been fine; we just wanted to know if we'd be punished. You didn't need to be so cryptic about it, you cool as fuck looking Shinigami." _So, only those who write in the Death Note will be punished?_ _Does that mean Sakae and I are in the clear? He isn't gonna kill us in the future? We'll make it to Heaven or Hell, unlike Light? Why the fuck did he have to be cryptic?! I don't speak nor understand cryptic! It just fucks with my mind!_ She needed more to go on.

Sakae raised her hand, wishing to ask another question; she wanted some clarification. "Ummm… I have a question for you, Mr. Shinigami." Ryuk looked towards her. "Since Kohaku and I sorta helped Light out with finding the criminals, does that mean we share the same horrible fate?"

"Like I said, only humans who have used the notebook can neither go to Heaven or Hell. Unless you two wrote within it, you do not share the same fate as Light," Ryuk clarified. Kohaku and Sakae were lucky to have such a luxury, all because they avoided writing names. "You will die when you are meant to."

"We are lucky bitches, Sakae," Kohaku commented, releasing a sigh of relief. "With the logic you stated, Ryuk, wouldn't that mean that Light is basically gonna end up becoming just like you?" She placed a finger to her lips, humming gently. "Hmm, I'm sure it's a possibility and it would be something extraordinary." It was as if she were answering her own question.

"It would be, wouldn't it?" Ryuk hadn't thought about that. It would be interesting having a human become a Shinigami upon their death, after using the Death Note; it never happened before, but perhaps things would be different.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door; the voice of Mrs. Yagami could be heard from the other side. Kohaku, Light, and Sakae gave each other looks of worry, uncertain whether or not they could open the door while Ryuk was there. However, the Shinigami in question simply told them to go ahead. Light opened the door and had a short conversation with his mother, taking a basket of apples from her hands that she had gotten from neighbors. As that occurred, the best-friends thought the same exact thing; _she can't see Ryuk?_ Shortly after closing the door again, Light walked back to his desk and placed the basket on it.

Ryuk approached the desk. "That notebook originally belonged to me and since you're now using it, only you can see me. However, there's the exception of those who have laid their hands on the notebook as well, like those two girls you have with you. And, of course, my voice can only be heard by you three. In other words, you can say that the notebook has created some sort of bond between the four of us." He picked up an apple and took a large bite. He chewed for a bit and swallowed. "Yum."

"Why was I chosen?" Light questioned. There had to be a reason why the chance of a lifetime had been placed on him. Ryuk was too busy devouring half of the apples in the basket to answer right away.

"I highly doubt you were chosen, considering you didn't even want the damn thing until you were convinced," Kohaku commented. "Also, I continue to lack appreciation towards the fact that you keep dismissing the acknowledgement that Sakae and I are a part of this nonsense, too." Although, maybe she'd excuse that one day since he was going to a worse place than them.

"I want to hear it from him," Light said, glaring at her. He completely dismissed her second statement, uncaring about it. Had he been chosen to kill criminals or not? As he waited impatiently, Kohaku fumed silently. "Are you even listening?" he asked Ryuk.

Ryuk swallowed another whole apple. "Hmm. Apples in the Human World are worth the trip. What's the best word to describe these? Juicy? Sour?" He wiped his mouth as he wondered about it, ignoring the human that wanted his attention. Sakae quickly uttered a suggestion; _sweet_. "Yes, definitely sweet." He ate another entire apple. Hearing Light complain more, he looked towards him. "Sorry, kid. Did you say something?" Light grumpily repeated his question. "I didn't choose you. Don't you see? This is all just an accident."

"See? I told you so. You just never listen to reason anymore." Kohaku stepped towards Light, roughly elbowing him in the side. He grunted and glared at her again. "You ain't that special."

"It was an accident?" Sakae questioned, blinking as she stared at the Shinigami. She moved closer to Light and Kohaku.

Ryuk stared at Light. "You actually thought you were chosen because you're so smart or something? Don't be so vain. It just happened to fall around here and you just happened to pick it up before," he nodded towards the girls, "Those two did. That's all there is to it. That's why I wrote the instructions in English, the most popular language in the Human World."

"If you wrote down specific instructions, that would mean that you dropped it on purpose," Kohaku pointed out, giving Ryuk a questioning look. "Why did you drop it anyways? Did you want to experiment or something? What?" The three humans stared at the Shinigami, waiting for an answer.

"You're asking why?" Ryuk questioned. "I did it 'cause I was bored." He wanted to get entertained. He regretted absolutely nothing; he was enjoying what he was getting so far; he didn't want to get rid of Light yet.

Light was flabbergasted. "You were bored?"

"Looks like even Shinigami can become bored out of their minds," Kohaku remarked. Sakae nodded in agreement with her.

"The truth is Shinigami haven't got much to do these days. Most of the time, we're either taking naps or gambling. If you take the time to write names in your Death Note, the others just laugh at you for working so hard. Even if you wrote the name of another Shinigami, it'd be pointless because they wouldn't die and since we live in the Shinigami Realm, it brings us no amusement to kill those in the Human World either. So, I figured I'd have more fun if I came down here myself. Anyway, I'm surprised at how many names you've written, but I wanna know why you only wrote the cause of death for that guy who was hit by the truck." That last bit was very intriguing to Ryuk and he was wondering what Light had in mind if he was avoiding killing criminals in various ways outside of heart attacks. Perhaps he was planning something special.

Light gave him a sly smile. "If you don't write down the cause of death, the victim dies of a heart attack and that's probably the best thing about the Death Note, Ryuk." For example, if the criminals were dying from cardiac arrest, no one would be suspicious about their sudden deaths, _for a while_. "You see, I've-" He gets interrupted by someone clearing their throat; it was Kohaku. He rolled his eyes at her. " _We've_ already exhausted the list of the world's major criminals. Eventually, we're gonna get rid of them all."

"Indeed, we are," Kohaku agreed. Sakae shivered; she'd never get used to hearing that.

"What's the point of doing that?" Ryuk asked.

"It's only a matter of time before people figure out that these criminals are being eliminated by someone. I want the world to know of my existence, that there's someone passing righteous judgement on the wicked," Light greedily stated.

"There you go again," Kohaku stated, sounding angry. "I really fucking hate how you made this all about you again. I was the one that came up with this idea in the first place." She stopped herself. "Okay, _technically_ , Sakae came up with the idea, but even so, I came up with the idea _before you did_. Hell, I was the reason you were convinced to even pick the damn thing up. Okay, again, it was technically Sakae and I together, but mostly me since I'm all for this and she isn't." She shoved Light. "The point I'm poorly trying to make is you need to start giving us a bit more credit, you greedy jackass. We're not mindless slaves, you know." Light just glared at her, _again_.

Ryuk interrupted the little dispute, which was hardly even one anyways. "Why even bother? What are you trying to achieve by passing judgement on them? Why do you care?"

"Because I've been bored, too," Light admitted. Kohaku didn't bother saying anything because she felt that was true and it was additionally something she could agree with since she had been bored as well. "I wasn't ready to believe it at first, but it's obvious now. There's something about the Death Note itself that makes humans want to try it out at least once." Okay, that was something else Kohaku could agree with; she continued silently listening to Light, occasionally glancing at Sakae out of impulse. "At first, I wrote the names of the worst criminals I could think of, like I was cleaning up the world, one name at a time so that eventually, no one will ever do anything evil again and while the truly guilty ones, who deserve to be punished for their crimes, die of heart attacks, the people who are less guilty, but who still make trouble for others, will slowly be erased through disease and accidental death. Then and only then, the world will start moving in the right direction. It'll be a new world, free of injustice and populated by people who I've judged to be honest, kind, and hardworking."

"But if you did that, it would make you the only bad person left," Ryuk pointed out.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Light stated in a somewhat innocent tone, smiling. "I'm a hard working honor student, considered to be one of Japan's best and brightest. And I, I will become the God of this New World." He actually considered himself to be the good guy amongst all the bad. He was gonna change the world.

Kohaku sighed, completely done with being dismissed so easily. She didn't respond with anger or frustration anymore, though; instead, she responded blankly. "Seriously, Light? For the final time, what about Sakae and I? Any room for us at all, you greedy bastard?" she questioned, adding a bit of emotion in her tone towards the end. She strolled towards his bed and sat upon it. "I mean, you seem to always dismiss us, so are we not pictured in this New World you speak of?" She watched as Sakae silently walked over to her and half-smiled as she sat down beside her. Quietly, Sakae gently tapped her hand, giving a gesture that she was agreeing with her, in a sense.

"You two could be the Goddesses," Light suggested, staring at them. Okay, so, suddenly he was acknowledging them and their help again. What the actual fuck was that all about? Could he not make up his mind about whether or not he wanted to credit them?

Kohaku scoffed. "Ha, as if I wanna be called that. No, thank you. I'm good." She shook her head. "I'd rather just be called the Weirdo or the Psycho, never a Goddess because nope. Hell, I don't even need a title; just being acknowledged is good enough for me." She looked at Ryuk, who ate yet another apple. "You and your fucking apples, demon. Goddamn. Meh, whatever. Anyways, you staying? If so, I must warn you that Light writes very dramatically, sometimes." Kohaku mimicked the act of writing. "It starts off like this, all normal and shit, but then, he just suddenly goes like this." She shot her arm out towards the right and in every other direction, each time she pretended to write down something and she made a random sound effect as she did it ( ** _A/N: Think of JackSepticEye_** ). She stopped after a moment. "It's kinda like he's thinking, 'You die! And you! You also!', or you know, maybe he's doing really odd and horrible karate movements. Either way, it looks fucking stupid." She grinned a little at the Shinigami. The God of Death in question chuckled, surprisingly amused by the female.

Sakae giggled, nodding her head. "Yeah, he's a bit overly dramatic. I don't know why he does it, but it's kinda funny." The Light she knew well was kinda a dingus sometimes, so she liked that he was still somewhat his old self in a few ways.

"Who says I'm being over-dramatic?!" Light huffed. "...Okay, fine, I can be a little over the top, but it looks cool!"

"It looks fucking stupid, in my opinion," Kohaku stated, giving him a half-smile. "In a very stupidly nice and hilarious way." She was suddenly enjoying herself again. So, he had dismissed their help multiple times; it was whatever because he only had been wanting to show off in front of the Shinigami; at least, she wanted to believe that was why he did it. If not, she'd just pretend it was why.

Sakae smiled, her worries vanishing almost entirely. "I think it's stupid in a funny sort of way, too." She wanted more moments like that; she wanted to go back to how it once was. Unfortunately, the notebook of death had already corrupted Light so much and there was likely no way of reversing the damage that had been made to his mind and soul.

"I can't tell if you two are insulting me or complimenting me," Light stated with a slight pout.

"Maybe we're doing both," Kohaku said, trying to confuse him. "After all, we happen to be females and us females can be very confusing to males like yourself. It's the way of life, the natural order of everything that we know. Don't question it, my friend. You'll only get a massive headache." She stuck her tongue out.

"You shouldn't be confusing, though. You should be, I don't know, not confusing or less confusing," Light stated, his intelligence temporarily slipping. "Don't stick your tongue out at me." Sakae laughed in the background and he pouted again. For someone who wanted to rid the world of evil, he could be quite innocent looking, and acting, sometimes.

"Hmm... Humans are interesting creatures," Ryuk stated to himself before he took a bite of the last apple, watching the three humans from the corner of the bedroom...

* * *

 **Fact One: I'm gonna try and add the dates into the story this time around. As a warning, the dates aren't entirely accurate to what they were inside the anime and I apologize for that. Everything may seem in order right now, but it's gonna change in accuracy eventually. Mark my words.**

 **Fact Two: Kohaku originally had a crush on Light and I'm not sure why I added that into the story in the first place. I've changed it to where she doesn't like him in that way at all and only speaks compliments sarcastically most of the time because friends tend to do that in real life, depending on their personality traits. Or, at least, I plan to have her compliment him sarcastically. Either that or she won't do it at all. We'll see as time continues.**

 **Fact Three: Last chapter, I left out what they were wearing, I think. Whenever I do that in the future, just assume that it's their school uniform that they've got on or some sort of casual clothing of some kind. I will mention clothing occasionally, though, depending on the event that's happening.**

 **Fact Four: I removed some dialogue because it wasn't necessary. At the time I made this with my friend, I think she and I just wanted our characters to talk often but some of it seemed really forced, that being another reason why it was removed. Some remains because it seemed decent enough to keep in. Furthermore, I'm almost certain that Light was out of character a little in this.**

 **Fact Five: I made it where Ryuk isn't entirely shy around females.**

* * *

 _ **Revamped: Sometime in January of 2019; March 3rd, 2019 (minor edits); August 4th-10th, 2019 (more minor edits; removal of some** **irrelevant** **information )**_

 **Original Word Count: 2,781**

 **Word Count Before Re-Edit: 7,799**

 **New Word Count: 6,327**


	4. 03: Detective L

_A detective is a person, presumably an officer or someone of high authority, whose occupation is to investigate and solve crimes._ _L is an enigmatic, nameless, and highly-esteemed international consulting detective who communicates only through his equally inexplicable handler/assistant, Watari, who serves as his official liaison with the authorities; though his entire past is shrouded in a void of mystery, L has gained a highly-regarded reputation for solving numerous cold cases and perplexing homicidal mysteries around the globe, and is considered to be one of the world's best detectives._

 _[These descriptions came from Google and Wikipedia]_

* * *

 **Warnings:** _Errors of Any Sort, Possible Out of Character Moments, Epic Profanity, Violence of Some Nature, Some Cringe Worthy Descriptions/Dialogue (Sorry, Not Sorry), Another Main Canon Character Is Introduced (Not Physically, Though; Not There, Yet, Unfortunately), More Side/Minor Characters Are Introduced (Probably Won't List This Warning Often, Just Because), Some Characters Talk More Than Others, Some Information Comes From The Wikia of The Anime/Manga, Plenty of Convenience, Realistic (To An Extent), Info Drops_

 **Changes from Original Edition:** _Errors Were Fixed (However, Some New Ones May Have Arrived, Which Is Why I Left That As A Warning), Dialogue Was Slightly Altered/Added/Deleted, Descriptions Are Occasionally Better Than They Once Were, A New Scene Was Created, Some New Information Was Revealed, and Some Actions/Reactions to Situations Were Changed_

 **Additional Information:** _I decided that I won't **fully** remove scenes that do not involve the original characters. Instead, I'll most likely just describe those moments when they come along and I'll limit the dialogue within them to save myself some time (and to avoid some additional cringe worthy writing)._

* * *

It was _December 4th_ , another brightly wondrous day of life beginning anew once more. Kohaku, Light, and Sakae were sitting inside their English classroom, silently listening to yet another boring lecture about whatever-it-was inside their educator's book of tedious words. Slowly but surely, their class was becoming a bit irritable; they were hearing a continuation of what they heard the previous day, which explained why most of their classmates never paid attention to the man. "'He found himself overwhelmed with happiness and satisfaction, knowing that, at long last, his dream had finally come true'," their teacher read.

Kohaku scoffed, instinctively glancing towards Light; somehow, that sentence alone perfectly described her changing friend. "Alright then." She silently watched as their instructor stopped reading aloud, eyes gazing amongst the crowd of students. Immediately, she predicted that he'd chose her aforementioned friend and ultimately rolled her eyes when he did _exactly_ that. "Yagami? Please recite this line for us in _Japanese_." _Seriously, that again...?_

"Sure." Light immediately paused his writing to stand. Picking up the book that laid on his desktop, he turned a few pages before speaking, having quickly found the line that was needed to be recited without any assistance. "' **Having finally made his dream a reality, he was overwhelmed; both by the magnitude of his achievement and by the joy and happiness that it brought him'.** " As soon as he finished, he sat back in his chair and placed the book onto the desk again. Shortly afterwards, he recommenced with his writing.

"That was very well done," their teacher unnecessarily complimented, using a flat tone whilst keeping a neutral expression. "But I'm not surprised, of course." Kohaku scoffed again; _how can anybody possibly tell if he's surprised or not when he never shows any goddamn emotion?_ "Absolutely flawless." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes again and silently watched as he closed the book in his hands. "Well then, we'll leave it at that for today." _Thank God for that_.

Although most of the students hadn't paid attention, a large number of them groaned; it was _almost_ like they had been suffering in silence the entire time when honestly, they hadn't because they had been far too busy with their texting and talking to actually care about the lectures that had taken place. Shortly afterwards, the bell rang and everyone stood from their seats; half of the students left the classroom, eager to get the hell outta there, while the other half remained inside to chat with their friends. Ryuk, unseen by everyone _but_ the three best-friends, stood up beside Light's desk, stretching and cracking his joints after crouching for so long. "I thought it would never end," he commented as he rotated his left shoulder.

"I know, right?" Kohaku uttered, gathering her belongings, under no rush. She huffed out a breath of annoyance when she turned around and found Sakae standing extremely close to her, items already collected from her desk; she was simply waiting for her dearest friend, but perhaps she should've stepped back a little. Together, the two of them strolled by Light's desk before pausing, both turning around to face their mutual friend as they waited for him. Light remained silent as he slowly gathered his belongings.

Continuing with rapidly rotating his shoulder, Ryuk spoke again. "How do you do this everyday? It's so boring here."

Kohaku held back her laughter as amusement coursed throughout her body; she hadn't expected to hear that from the Shinigami, but it was kinda amazing that even a God of Death could be turned off by the makings of high school bullshit. The comment from him caused Sakae to be as amused, but she didn't try hiding it from everyone; instead, she smiled brightly. "It depends on how you look at it." Around them, their remaining classmates were too busy chatting amongst themselves to overhear. "A brilliant mind, or someone like Light, would find school enduring whilst other people, such as Kohaku for example, would find it to be tormenting." She giggled when Kohaku slightly pushed her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like you aren't intelligent, Kohaku; I was only trying to say that you're somebody who finds absolutely no joy in being here." Kohaku puffed, nodding in acceptance, and Ryuk didn't say another word about the matter.

The silence of the Shinigami only lasted for a good half-minute before he began speaking again; he wanted Light to make conversation with him. His attempts, however, were futile, _but_ merely for a few moments. By the time the teen finally spoke, the four of them were outside of the building, surrounded by the other students. "Don't talk to me," he uttered as he walked alongside his best-friends, Ryuk floating directly behind him. "Unlike you, people can still hear me when I talk aloud." In reality, it wouldn't matter because he had Kohaku and Sakae with him, that meaning people could easily assume he was speaking with either of them if the conversation was overheard by bystanders.

"If you're that worried about everyone looking at you weirdly, just pretend you're talking to me or Kohaku when you address him," Sakae suggested. "Then, it wouldn't look like you were speaking to yourself." She paused. " _Actually_ , you don't even have to pretend; they'll probably think that either way."

" _Or_ ," Kohaku butted in, speaking loudly. "You could talk as loud as you fucking want and not give a goddamn about your reputation for fucking once!" Immediately, students around them started glancing in their direction, giving off looks of either annoyance, interest, confusion, or disapproval; however, when they recognized her face, they looked away just as quickly; the entire school knew of her reputation for being an odd young woman with violent tendencies.

"Unlike you, I actually care about what people think of me," Light remarked. "My reputation doesn't consist of violence and immaturity like yours does." However, his rep outside the public was of both things he aforementioned, but he'd never admit that, aloud or to himself, because his actions were meaningful and wondrous to him.

"You're so boring, Light, unlike your friend here," Ryuk commented, making Kohaku almost laugh aloud. She definitely could consider that a personal achievement. Furthermore, that remark of his made her extremely pleased since Light's statement had kinda pissed her off. "What's your name again?" he asked as he looked towards her, still following behind them. Instantly, her pleasure vanished; Ryuk hadn't cared enough to remember her name ( _despite that he could easily spot it over her head with his Shinigami abilities, a fact not exactly known to the teens_ ). She kept quiet, not wanting to answer, which caused Sakae to do such instead. "Why couldn't she say it herself?"

"Because I hate my goddamn name," Kohaku responded without hesitation. "It's a ridiculous reason, I know, but it's true." In actuality, she didn't speak her name because she just hadn't wanted to, thanks to negative emotions. "I'm obviously a female and that clearly isn't a feminine name. It doesn't fit, so I hate it. It's as simple as that."

"Hmm... What a strange reason to hate a name," Ryuk remarked as he contemplated the newfound information. He couldn't see why that was a valid reasoning; it seemed pretty dumb to him. A name was just a name, nothing more and nothing less. If she hated it so much, why didn't she change it to something more suitable? Given she hadn't done such yet, she likely liked her given name a bit more than she was letting on.

In reality, Kohaku's reasoning for hating her name was actually _beyond_ what she had stated; certainly, she was correct that the name wasn't suited for females but it wasn't the main reason behind her hatred. Her problem was that her parents had hoped for a son and never thought of the possibility they'd have her, _a daughter_ , instead. When she was born, they hadn't bothered finding a correct name, giving her the only one they had in mind for months. She was basically a surprise to them; a mistake, an accident, _a female_. She didn't want to love her name, but additionally didn't particularly care about getting it changed to something else; why switch it when she already built herself a rep as a violent, hot-headed tomboy named Kohaku?

* * *

Eventually, after reentering the Yagami household, the four found themselves back inside Light's bedroom. From there, they went about their usual order of business; using the Death Note to end more lives of criminals. Light was sitting at his desk, maliciously eyeing his television as he wrote the names of offenders that were shown; Ryuk was chilling on the bed, munching on another red apple while lying in a somewhat suggestive pose; Sakae was sitting on the floor, her back against the bed's frame, and she was gazing down at the laptop laying on her legs; Kohaku, located to the left of Sakae, was also eyeing the laptop, pointing at random criminals that she believed Light would be interested in killing, whose names were, then, written down on a normal sheet of paper for Light, although he would still have to look them up to get a glimpse of their faces for the Death Note to actually work on them. In the end, Light was doing most of the work whilst the females simply tried to do something.

Kohaku rested her head against the bed's frame, sighing in frustration as she overheard the news report about a recent stabbing incident. Beside her, Sakae tensed up at the mentioning of said crime and instantly, Kohaku wrapped her arm around the younger female's shoulder, comforting her. "Why does there have to be so much crime in the world?" the older teen asked, to no one in particular. "I don't see why these criminals didn't think their shit through. Like, they should've thought about what would happen to them after they killed, harmed, and-or sexually assaulted someone. I mean, maybe they did, but then went through with that horrid shit anyways. Who fucking knows." She sighed and shook her head, ceasing her rambling. "No one answer that. It's just a thought I've been having lately. I guess I should've figured out a lot sooner that some people just don't have any good in them. So, ignore all that mess. It wasn't of importance." Again, Sakae was triggered by another word mentioned on the television, additionally bothered by something her ranting best-friend had said, and Kohaku sighed, pulling her closer. "Sorry. I didn't mean to further stir old memories," she apologized, uttering her words only for Sakae to hear.

"...It's okay," Sakae whispered back, smiling sadly. She knew Kohaku hadn't tried bringing up the horrific past, one that they endured together in some form of fashion; it was too painful to fully recall, so she brushed those unwanted memories away. Clearing her throat, she spoke up. "It's, uh, it's the thrill." She scrolled through the list of criminals on the laptop. "The thrill of the kill, the escape, and thinking they can get away. It's how their individual minds work; they don't care about who they kill, as long as they get the stimulation they desire." She removed her hands from the laptop, rubbing them against each other. Her sadness had yet faded. "They don't care who it hurts in the process because the pain of others pleases them, too..."

Light paused his writing for a brief period. He had forgotten about _that_. How could he disregard that moment in life so easily? It had been such a traumatizing time for Sakae... For Kohaku, too... They could've died; Kohaku almost had. However, the past didn't seem to phase her as much as it did Sakae; although, it made sense because she hadn't lost anyone dear to her that day. _Damn it..._ He couldn't recall if he dealt with _those_ criminals. He hoped he had; he could've lost his best-friends because of them. "Don't get distracted," he commented. "We have lots of work to do tonight."

Kohaku released a purposely drawn-out sigh. "Seriously?" she questioned. "Do we really have to work late into the night again? I'm tired enough as it is." Removing her arm from Sakae, she stood from the floor, stretching. "The criminals aren't just gonna vanish outta thin air, you know; they'll still be around later. So, may we take a well-deserved break from all of this insanity? A girl can't take but so much at once, you know." Truthfully, she was tired, but mainly, she wanted Sakae's mind off the past.

Light sighed, but nodded in agreement. "Fine, _but_ only for a few minutes." There just wasn't enough time between killing criminals and resting up for school. He turned off the television temporarily, placing down his pencil and closing the Death Note.

Sakae closed the laptop, placing it beside her on the floor. "Light, I know you're very passionate about this, but you can't consistently deal with it." A frown forming, she stood and stared at the back of his head. Kohaku silently watched from nearby. "I'm becoming scared of what may happen if you continue on like this." He turned to look back at her and he did so with such a blank expression that her silent concern for him made a reappearance. _He's been writing in that notebook so much more lately... I'm surprised he hasn't lost most of his sanity by now... I can see that it's still affecting him a lot, though... Oh, Light... I hope you see reason soon... We can't lose you like this... I can't lose you..._

"I don't need your pity, Sakae," Light stated, a bit too roughly. "This world needs fixing and it can't be corrected if corruption continues to breed. When evil finally rests, maybe then I'll stop writing names for a while." As they spoke, more crimes were being committed and, thanks to their break, Light could do nothing about them, for the time being. When the world finally realized there was someone ridding the Earth of scum, he'd take a _longer_ break from the Death Note, just as he said. Until then, however, evil wasn't resting and he needed it known to everyone that those who were felonious would be executed without a second thought; no criminal was safe under the watchful eye of Light Yagami, God of the New World.

Kohaku blankly stared at her corrupted friend, taking in his words. Moments later, she grunted. "Light, you nimrod." He hummed as he turned his seat around entirely, eyeing her curiously as she slowly approached him. He blinked in surprise when she suddenly leaned down, getting in his face, and placed her hands on his shoulders. Her eyes narrowed at him. "Corruption will always continue to breed, you massive idiot. That's how life works. Evil will never rest, not even when it notices that most of its minions are missing. There will always be people who'll be willing to risk everything, just to satisfy their hunger." Her eyes softened as her rant started closing. "You need to start taking breaks more often. The world isn't gonna run out of criminals, not any moment soon." Maybe someday, Light would succeed in writing all the names of the culprits in the world, but even then, it was likely that more would potentially come out of the darkness because evil couldn't be killed. Additionally, the fact that she never mentioned herself or Sakae meant something; she was slowly accepting that she didn't really have any control over who lived or died, something she had been denying when they met Ryuk; in reality, they were just moral support, in a sense. "Light, please don't allow the Death Note to takeover any more than it already has..." she uttered as she dropped her hands from his shoulders, frowning with sadness in her eyes. She didn't want to lose him as a friend, not to the evil of the Death Note.

Light blinked at her, scoffing. "What are you talking about? The Death Note hasn't done anything to me, except made me happier." He crossed his arms, staring at her with narrowed eyes. "It hasn't changed me and it isn't going to. Don't get such crazy ideas stuck in your head." He scoffed again, rolling his eyes. "Like I'd allow it to corrupt me. I'm not some weakling, Kohaku. I can handle it."

Kohaku stepped back from Light, continuing to stare at him with sadness. _I see... You don't even realize how much it has already corrupted you. Your constant writing, that's what's making your personality shift so drastically. I wonder how long it'll be before it makes you turn on us..._ She released a low sigh, still frowning. "You never know what could happen. I just don't want to lose you as a friend. With that being said, you, of all people, _should_ understand why we're so worried."

Blinking again, Light stared back and forth between the two females. "Really? That's what you two are so worried about? You think I'm going to change and no longer be your friend? Seriously?" That confession made him feel more aggravated than blessed. They were his best-friends; they weren't supposed to doubt him, they were supposed to support him no matter the cost. Maybe the Death Note was corrupting _them_. Maybe they were seeing _him_ as a liability. He mentally shook that thought away; doubts about each other would only bring out the worst in them.

"Well," Sakae chimed in. "We're not worried so much about losing your friendship. We're just worried about you changing for the worst." She looked at the floor, avoiding his gaze. "You'd never lose our friendships. We'll stick with you, no matter what." She glanced back at him. "Even if you _do_ change," that earned an eye roll from him, "We'll stay by your side. We'll continue to bug you like we always do, that way things will never be different." She was speaking with false hope, by that point. Even she could see he was becoming more and more corrupted, especially after using the notebook so much at one time. She had very little hope left, only believing that perhaps they could prevent him from fully turning to the darkside.

"I think you should rethink that plan of yours, Sakae. You know, the one you just stated, where we bug him to death," Kohaku remarked. "Cause, uh, I quite enjoy being very much alive. I also love breathing and your plan could potentially end that for me. Because if the Death Note _does_ change him and we bug him too much, there's a chance that neither of us will still be living above the ground." She needed to avoid revealing her _complete_ thoughts about it, mostly because he'd probably get in a negative mood again. She wasn't sure if his attitude was even returning to a positive one. It probably wasn't; honestly, she couldn't tell a difference between the two anymore.

Although that statement had greatly annoyed him, Light spoke to both females reassuringly. "I would never think about ending your lives. That's not even remotely a possibility. You two mean far too much to me. I won't just toss your friendship aside like that." Despite that he was frustrated with the new information he discovered, such as them being worried about the Death Note, he still cared a lot about their safety and that certainly wouldn't change. _Probably._

Sakae slightly smiled, her gloomy mood fading away a tad. "That's..." She glanced at him again before looking away, slight redness in her cheeks. "...That's really sweet of you..." She had her doubts about his behavior, but was pleased he still showed concern for them.

"Wow, don't I feel special," Kohaku remarked with sarcasm, causing Light to glare at her lightly. Anyone could say something like that; people made empty promises all the time. She wanted to believe that he'd always think highly of them, but she couldn't see what the future held for them. Only one thing was certain, though; she didn't want to find out if their luck would run dry. There couldn't be a happy ending for any of them, not with the Death Note in existence.

"Human relationships seem like such a complicated thing," Ryuk commented aloud as he sat up from his lying position, bored after long finishing the delicious red apples that had been in his possession. He didn't bother looking in the direction of the humans that he was spending all his time with. "I'm glad I don't have to deal with them."

Sakae blinked, looking towards the Shinigami. "What?" Had she heard that correctly? "Ryuk, don't you have anybody in your world that you like spending time with? You know, is there anyone that you like?" She hadn't thought about the Shinigami being without any form of relation; she thought everybody had someone in their life, even the magnificent creatures.

"Not at all," he replied, sounding disinterested. "In my world, relationships of any sort are unnecessary and unheard of. We speak to whomever we please when we're bored. Other than that, we don't really socialize with one another."

"Oh..." Sakae uttered, turning away from him and dropping her eyes to the floor. Her expression became sad. "How lonely..." She couldn't imagine a life where she had no one to truly bond with. Friendship was _probably_ the only thing keeping her going; if she didn't have that, she _probably_ would go insane with guilt or just go crazy in general. She had her brother, too, but considering he wasn't aware of her situation, his presence in her life wasn't very helpful, apart from having someone to go home to.

Suddenly, the handle of the door turned downward and clicked as it stopped its motion, preventing the intruder from entering the room without permission. However, such actions caused everyone within the bedroom to look towards the locked entrance. The voice of Light's younger sister, Sayu, could be heard. "Huh? Weird. Hey, Light, why is your door locked? Are you doing top secret things with Kohaku and Sakae again? Do you want me to come back later when you're finished?" she questioned without a pause.

Kohaku tilted her head, still staring at the closed doorway. She glanced over at Sakae, whispering. "What kind of polyamorous shit does she think we're into?" She crossed her arms. "Why does she even think this is a polyamory sort of deal, anyway?" It felt implied, especially with the weird tone that the young girl had used towards the end of her questioning.

Sakae cracked a smile, shaking her head at Kohaku. She spoke softly. "I don't think she insinuated that. Although, she _did_ use a strange tone, so who knows. It would be kinda disturbing if it's true. She's young; she shouldn't know about things like that."

Light shook his head as he briefly stared at the two females. The things they tended to say, it confused him sometimes. He looked back towards the door. "What is it, Sayu?" Immediately, she responded with another question; it was about getting help with homework. "Uh, yeah, okay." He looked towards his desk, grabbing the Death Note as he opened up a drawer; he didn't hesitate to stash away the notebook. He stood and approached the door. Unlocking it, he allowed Sayu inside.

She entered, dressed in a beige short-sleeved turtleneck dress that ended slightly above her mid-thighs, such clothing being over an orange long-sleeved shirt and black leggings. Light closed the door behind her as she walked across the room at a slow pace. Her chocolate-brown hair was held up in a high-ponytail, her bangs covering her forehead, and strands of her locks were framing her face. She glanced between Kohaku and Sakae with innocent brown eyes, giving them a smile. She was carrying a workbook. "We're doing quadratic equations in math," she informed Light as she walked towards his desk, Kohaku and Sakae stepping aside to allow her by. "Sorry for interrupting. I know you guys were studying or whatever, but I'm, like, the only person in my class who doesn't get this stuff." She placed her workbook onto Light's desk, taking a seat in his chair.

Sakae smiled. "It's really no problem, Sayu. _We'd_ be delighted to help you out." She needed another distraction from everything.

"You guys have fun with that," Kohaku remarked, walking towards Light's large, wide bookshelf, located near the door. "Math was never my best subject." She skimmed through the various titles in the shelf.

Light approached Sayu from behind, leaning over her shoulder as she flipped to where she needed assistance. Glancing through the work she already had done, he failed to see any problems in how she found her answers. "Everything seems to be in order." He skimmed through the word problems again, rechecking her answers; perhaps he missed something.

Sakae approached them, soon standing beside Light. She glanced over Sayu's shoulder, looking down at the workbook. After carefully studying the problems for a minute or two, she came to a conclusion of sorts. "It may be that the division is wrong," she suggested. "If you're trying to find the roots of it, I suggest completing the square or quadratic formula, the second option being the best bet." Hearing Kohaku utter _nerd_ under her breath, she half-smiled.

Out of nowhere, Ryuk started speaking, his words directed towards Light. "I'd be careful if I were you." He moved to be sitting crisscrossed on the bedding. "If anyone else touches that notebook you've got hidden in your drawer, they'll be able to see me, too." With that mentioned, the best-friends tensed up in unison; he should've told them _before_ Sayu entered the bedroom. Quickly recovering from their sudden unease, Light and Sakae continued to help the youngling with her schoolwork.

Nearby, Kohaku remained tense as she clenched her fists. She didn't like the thought of Sayu getting involved in their matters; her naivety would become corrupted and she'd be a shell of her former self, something she didn't want to witness. Shaking away the fear of Sayu potentially touching the notebook, she relaxed herself a bit as she stared at the bookshelf. She didn't want to remain there anymore, not that evening. Glancing towards her friends briefly, she approached the closed door. "I'm heading home. See ya tomorrow." She exited the bedroom quickly, shutting the door behind her without waiting for a returning farewell.

 _She needed some space to think..._

* * *

Silently entering her household, Kohaku huffed as she heard the distant, muffled yelling of her parents; they were arguing in the kitchen again, probably talking about her bad behavior or something of the sort. Her father, Kyoya, was likely drunk off his ass again and her mother, Yue, was probably a bit tipsy herself; whenever her dad was drinking too much, her mom would get as drunk in retaliation and that only made matters worse, most of the time. Quietly, she made her way to her bedroom, frowning. _Why is life so difficult sometimes? Why is life hard in general?_

Shutting the bedroom door behind her, she approached her nightstand. Clicking on her lamp, she made her way to the wardrobe, getting dressed in her nightwear, not wanting to sleep in her uniform that night (even though nightfall was a long ways from then). Removing her dress shirt, she tossed it carelessly onto the floor and soon paused her movements when she caught a glimpse of herself in the oversized mirror that hanged on the open door of the closet. Sighing, she placed her hand onto her side, tracing the horizontal line that was permanently located there...

 _"Stop struggling, brat!"_

 _"You little bitch!"_

 _"I'm gonna enjoy slicing you apart!"_

She hated that memory. Such a horrid event had occurred inside the Shiraki household. She, thankfully, had managed to save Sakae from a terrible, more traumatizing fate than what was bestowed onto her loving parents, but even so, it was too late to stop her from witnessing some horrifying things. Additionally, Kohaku's interference had gotten her stabbed, but would've been worse off if she hadn't called the authorities _before_ she had sneaked into the house. She, too, had seen some shit that day, but Sakae had definitely seen the worst of it all. She was so sad and terrified after the police arrived, but Kohaku couldn't blame her for that since it was the worst day of her goddamn life; Sakae lost both of her parents from a house invasion and nearly lost her best-friend in the process; Kohaku pitied her. Only two decent things came out of it; Sakae's life was spared and Kohaku's parents went an entire week without fusing as they took care of their injured child...

Leaving her scar alone as she pushed the negative memory away, she continued removing her school uniform before throwing on a random skimpy nightgown, one that didn't necessarily fit with her overall personality. Closing the closet, she strolled to her bed and sat down, reaching to turn off the lamp. Shortly afterwards, she found herself lying down, staring up at the dark ceiling as very little light escaped through the closed curtains of the window.

Too much was happening, all seeming revolving around the Death Note. She sighed lowly. _Ah, the Death Note_ ; the source of her newfound problems. She was starting to regret having suggested keeping it; it was only causing her more pain, considering that the innocent could get involved in their mess. She hadn't anticipated that. It was far too late, however, for them to go back to how life was beforehand; Light already seemed too far gone from the madness building inside his head. Kohaku just didn't know what to do...

* * *

The International Criminal Police Organization, or _ICPO_ , was an organization facilitating international police cooperation. It was established as the ICP Commission in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its name in 1956. A far more common name for the ICPO was _INTERPOL_. As of late, the ICPO was made aware that many criminals across the globe were suddenly dying from unexplained heart attacks. So, within the main headquarters, an important meeting was taking place to discuss the mysterious events that were finally beginning to create some distress around the world.

Universally, there were fifty-two _known_ cases of criminals being killed off with sudden heart attacks, all of which had occurred in just the past week and it was likely that there were more, but one couldn't be too certain without thoroughly researching the exact times and dates that the culprits had passed on, leaving one to assume that perhaps the death toll was somewhere over one-hundred in actuality. During the rambling discussions occurring within the large crowd of professionals, Soichiro Yagami (the father of Light and Sayu, a fairly tall middle-aged man with a mustache and short combed-back black hair, his brown eyes were somewhat concealed behind rectangular spectacles, and he was attired in formal Western clothing) entered a room in a late form of fashion; he had to take an urgent call beforehand, so the meeting had started without his presence. Sitting beside Touta Matsuda (a naive young detective lacking seriousness for his work, he had black hair that was hanging over his ears and primarily above his right eye, he had brown eyes, and he was dressed in formal clothing), the two had a very short conversation about the reason behind Mr. Yagami's lateness before listening to the discussions.

One representative questioned why the killings were contemplated as a problem, considering all the people who died were either sentenced to life or death row. Instantly, a different delegate responded to such nonsense; murder was still murder and the person responsible for those events needed to be found. However, another commissioner replied to the aggressiveness that the delegate had spoken; it was far too early for them to consider any of the deaths as a homicide when they were only heart attacks. Another member butted in, stating his own thoughts as he agreed with the aggressive delegate from earlier; even though such was the case, someone was seemingly killing off the criminals through some form of mass homicide. Without pause, the bickering between representatives escalated until the apparent head silenced them all, saying that INTERPOL had no choice but to bring in _L_.

That statement alone resulted in the entire room whispering amongst themselves. Matsuda seemed confused by the declaration and questioned Mr. Yagami about that meant. Recalling that it was the first time Matsuda had been a part of the conference, Mr. Yagami explained everything to the best of his ability; L was the name taken on by a mysterious person whose real name, and identity, remained unknown to everyone and he had been able to successfully solve every single case that had been given to him by the ICPO. L was their final resort, their trump card; if anyone could solve the mystery, it was him.

The whispers became louder; one particular delegate questioned how they were gonna contact the mysterious detective, especially when he was known to only take on cases that interested him. His question was answered quickly when someone stated that L was already involved with the case of the mysterious deaths; the response came from a tall man in a black trench coat, his face hidden by his black hat. All eyes were on him and everyone was completely silent as they waited for the mystery man to speak further; he merely repeated his previous words in a different manner by stating that L was already investigating. During such statement, Mr. Yagami briefly commented to himself the name of the mysterious man; _Watari_ , the helping hand of L. Asking for silence, Watari opened a laptop that displayed an enormous letter, _L_. A voice-scrambled tone began speaking from the electronic device, introducing himself as the mysterious detective. Without pause, L informed INTERPOL that he would need the cooperation of every organization being represented in the ICPO, especially the Japanese Task Force since he had great suspicions that the mass murderer resided somewhere in Japan...

* * *

As the conference meeting took place, something else of importance was taking place elsewhere in the same country. Inside what appeared to be a run-down building, Light was fumbling around with various objects; after learning anyone could see his Shinigami upon touching the Death Note, he eventually left his house. With him, Ryuk and Sakae watched with slight curiosity, Kohaku nowhere in sight because she remained at home, lying in her bed as she waited for the slow arrival of darkness. Light continued with his handiwork, silently experimenting as he remained on the dirty floor. "What are we doing here anyway?" Ryuk asked, suddenly breaking the silence. "I don't understand why we're sneaking around this dump. Tell me."

"Isn't it obvious?" Light remarked, immediately overhearing Sakae replying with _apparently not_. Half-smiling, he partially explained what he was trying to accomplish. "You told me, Ryuk, that if anyone touches the Death Note, they'll be able to see you. We can't afford carrying something this dangerous around anymore. Up until now, I thought that if my family ever saw the notebook, I could tell them I was keeping records of various criminals in preparation for becoming a detective someday." He glanced towards the floating Ryuk momentarily before proceeding with what he was doing. "We're walking a very fine line right now." Mixing together two liquids, he watched as they ignited upon intact. " _I don't want to think about it, but if I make one mistake, I might end up killing my own family_ ," he thought. " _I could even cause harm to Sakae or Kohaku. I can't allow any of that to happen._ "

Sakae silently watched Light for another minute, thinking back to what happened; Kohaku left the household in a hurry, something she never had done without explanation. She was very worried, anxious to know if she was alright. Unable to help herself, she decided to address the matter. "Hey..." she started with hesitation, frowning. "I need to talk to you about Kohaku..." Blinking, Light turned his attention towards her. "Do you think that maybe something is wrong...?"

Light narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Hesitating, Sakae spoke what she felt as best she could. "Well, she kinda left in a rush. I mean, she tends to do that sometimes, but she usually tells us why. She seemed slightly...distant, too, like she didn't want us to know what was bothering her... I don't know if it was because she felt distressed over what Ryuk told us or maybe she just felt uncomfortable being around us while we dealt with mathematics since, like she stated, she's not that great at the subject..." She sighed, rubbing the back of her head as she shifted. "I might just be a little paranoid or something... Maybe nothing is actually wrong... But, I just _feel_ like something's off, you know..."

"Hmm..." Light glanced back at his work. "She seemed alright to me, until Ryuk spoke up. Maybe she was worried about what would happen if Sayu touched the Death Note." It seemed like the more logical explanation for what occurred; it was ridiculous to believe Kohaku rushed off because of feeling uncomfortable with their brilliance towards mathematics.

Her worries diminishing slightly, Sakae nodded shortly as she half-smiled. "You're probably right... Anyway, let's get this over with... I don't wanna stay here anymore..."

Shortly thereafter, the three returned to the Yagami household, finding themselves inside the bedroom again; Light was sitting at his desk, fumbling around with the drawer, and Ryuk was watching him because he still had nothing better to do. From the bed, Sakae was looking in their direction, but was too occupied with her thoughts to notice anything; her concern for Kohaku vanished, however, when she was brought back to reality by Light, who started speaking. "That was easier to make than I thought it'd be." He relaxed in his chair. Upon questioning by Ryuk, he continued; he devised a trap to prevent anyone from touching the Death Note, something that needed to be done to prevent a catastrophe. While he explained it to Ryuk and Sakae, he opened the drawer to reveal an ordinary diary, which would interest anyone that was snooping around and likely stop their search there; underneath it, however, was a false bottom hiding the notebook that, if pried open incorrectly, would set fire to the Death Note and Light's desk. Hearing claims of risk from the Shinigami, Light spoke up again, but with a neutral expression, his smirk gone. "You say the strangest things sometimes, Ryuk. This whole thing has been a risk since the very beginning, from the moment we obtained the Death Note. I'm sorry, but compared to that, this doesn't even qualify as a risk to me. In fact, it actually protects us." Leaning back, he folded his arms behind his head. "It all comes down to a choice; would I prefer to be executed or deal with a little house fire."

Sakae frowned. Although she was impressed that he had done all of that within a few hours, she wasn't pleased that he had to go to such lengths in order to protect all of them. " _Regardless of what he said, this just seems too risky. Sure, a house fire would stop anyone from reading or touching the Death Note, but it could get the snooper killed... It could get his family killed... I honestly don't understand you sometimes, Light... I hope you don't end up regretting this later..."_

* * *

 _December 5th_ ; when approached the following morning, Kohaku nonchalantly dismissed their concerns and falsely stated that she rushed off because she had much better things to do; it wasn't the best fib she created on the spot, but it was good enough. Neither of them believed her, of course, but they didn't question her further either; she wasn't gonna tell them either way, so why bother?

Everything continued like normal; they were bored throughout the school day. Although, something different occurred in their final class; a large variety of their classmates spoke of someone named _Kira_ and it didn't take much effort to realize that they were speaking of the person killing criminals. Needless to say, Light was smirking his head off as he listened to their hushed ramblings and his friends were looking uncertain; Sakae always had been unsure about what they were doing, but the fact that Kohaku was beginning to start feeling the same, that only meant something definitely was wrong with that entire situation. Although, maybe the situation had always been bad; they just hadn't wanted to believe it was real. One thing was for certain, though; neither female was as corrupted as Light.

Ultimately, school ended for the day and the three eventually found themselves back inside the Yagami household, hanging out within Light's bedroom like usual; Kohaku and Sakae were lying on the bed, staring at a phone that belonged to the latter, and Light was sitting at his desk again, using his computer instead of writing in the Death Note. Ryuk stared over his shoulder, floating in place. They were looking at various sites revolving around Kira; many civilians were seeing the entity as an anti-hero, many on its side; some believed that maybe there were multiple persons doing the killing. Light was overall pleased by the information and chats, but Kohaku and Sakae were dissatisfied. "Ryuk, you should check this out," he suggested. Ryuk, still looking over Light's shoulder, started paying attention to what was shown on the screen, briefly praising the human by stating he thought the name was pretty cool.

Sakae sighed as she sat up, handing her phone to Kohaku; seeing more of those websites would just make her feel worse. She threw her legs off the bed and remained sitting there, contemplating everything as her white-gloved hands gripped tightly onto the lower portion of her casual white dress. Maybe she could've prevented everything if she hadn't helped Kohaku suggest taking the Death Note; then, perhaps everything would still be the same, boring and uneventful. Standing up in her white flat-shoes, she paced lightly around the room, unable to stay in one place as she frowned. " _Before long, there will be so many sites about Light, Kohaku, and I, or rather, they'll be about Kira. Light's so proud about that... Yesterday, I would've thought Kohaku would be proud, too, but she's not; I think maybe she finally sees how wrong all of this is. Maybe she can convince Light to stop... Light's vision is getting out of hand..."_

Kohaku glared at the phone, skimming through many chat-rooms which mentioned Kira a lot; many anonymous persons were requesting deaths of random people they knew, who likely weren't criminals, and it was making her sick. _How could I have been a part of this?_ She was seeing the light of the situation, or rather its darkness; killing criminals wasn't justifiable and they should've left the decisions to the authorities. Even though many criminals would've gotten away with their shit, it would've been better than what was happening; life was meant to be unfair. _I should've known better_. Grunting, she slapped the flip-phone shut as she sat up, her grey hoodie rising slightly to reveal her school shirt underneath. Pushing the sweatshirt down, she huffed and threw her legs off the bed, but remained where she was without contemplating anything. Kicking her legs, she quietly waited for someone to speak, her hands gripping her black pants.

"...Can't say I'm too happy about that, but it looks like that's the name they've decided to give me," Light remarked. He wasn't bothering to _try_ giving the females credit anymore, but neither teen cared and the lack of recognition was left unheeded. Kohaku scoffed; if anything, the name fit perfectly. Silently, the females listened as Light continued, his eyes on the computer screen. He was smirking and, apart from the lack of jacket, was apparently still wearing his school uniform. "...The media hasn't picked up on it. They're still calling it ' _a succession of unexplained deaths among the world's most hardened criminals_ '. However, the people of the world can already sense that there's something happening; they know there's someone out there passing righteous judgment." Kohaku rolled her eyes.

Sakae glanced towards Light as she paused her pacing, shrugging her shoulders. "Or, you know, they're just noticing that someone is killing off criminals... But hey, who's paying attention..." It wasn't righteous judgment; it was murder and hundreds of sudden deaths weren't going to go unnoticed. Those people online, everyone seeing Kira as their hero, they only saw him as somebody who was getting rid of bad people; they weren't thinking about if it was right or wrong.

" _This is a pain in the fucking ass,_ " Kohaku thought. " _I should be happy about the glory we're getting, but I'm not. I don't necessarily wish to continue with this, but I can't just ditch Light. Can I? Nowadays, he'd have no problem with ditching either of us, so maybe I should. I don't know. I mean, I don't entirely regret what we've done, but I'd take it all back in a heartbeat if it meant that Light wouldn't be so..._ " She sighed. " _We worsened everything... I blame myself entirely for this... I never should've opened my big fat mouth. Killing criminals, making the world a safer place; as if that can ever happen._ " Huffing, she stood and crossed her arms, looking towards the single window. "You must be proud of yourself, Light. Support for Kira seems to be growing. No one's afraid to speak what they feel online." Glancing towards him, she continued. "I suppose that means you're becoming the God you wanted to be." She made a face as she looked away, disgusted with herself; he was no God, he was a menace. She frowned. " _I wonder if it's too late to turn back..._ "

Light looked at Kohaku. "Of course." He smirked. "But I'm surprised that you haven't said anything about your new Goddess stature. Sakae, I can understand, but you?" He narrowed his eyes as his smirk vanished momentarily. "Have you changed your mind, Kohaku?" There was a dangerous glint in his eyes. "You aren't backing out, are you?"

"Course not, Light," Kohaku remarked, no hesitation visible as she looked at him with returning narrowed eyes. "I just don't care about titles. At first, it sounded awesome, but now, I simply don't give a shit. You can keep all of the titles for yourself, if you want, _Kira_. After all, you've been doing the real work."

Light frowned but, after a few seconds, started smirking again. "This is true. I _have_ been doing all the work and now, it has finally paid off. Those who have done no wrong are cheering for Kira in their hearts because they have nothing to fear while those who have are on the run. They are forced to hide from an unknown enemy. This is how it should be. It's perfect. Everything is going just as planned." His smirk started to look a bit too creepy for comfort.

Sakae glanced at him, grimacing. "Uh, creepy much?" She was quickly startled by the sudden sound of snickering and soon gazed towards Kohaku; she was covering her mouth. "Hey, look!" Sakae exclaimed, pointing at Kohaku as she looked at Light again. If anything could ease the tension in the room, it was probably that moment of short-lived happiness. "Kohaku looks like she's gonna laugh!" She smiled a little. Laughter seemed to be a rare occurrence with their aggressive, anti-social best-friend.

Kohaku coughed forcefully, trying to hold back her impending laughter. "I do not." She didn't remove her hand entirely, in case a giggle tried to escape. She forced out another cough. "I don't look like I'm gonna do anything."

"Oh?" Sakae looked back at her, still smiling. "Well, then I demand you explain why you have your mouth covered like you're trying to hide your laughter."

Removing her hand as the impending laughter faded, Kohaku half-smiled. "I was gonna sneeze."

"How come you didn't sneeze, then?" Sakae countered. "I'm gonna keep on asking questions until I get the truth, Missy."

"Because I held it in, you goober," Kohaku replied, sticking out her tongue. "I can do this all night long, girly. Bring it."

Sakae studied Kohaku's face. "I didn't see the expression that signals one is about to sneeze."

"That's because my hand was blocking it," Kohaku countered. She stepped forward, getting closer to Sakae. She poked her nose. "You're such a stubborn dingus sometimes, you know."

"Hey!" Sakae scrunched her nose. Acting offended, she swatted at Kohaku's arm, but failed to keep a smile off her face during the performance. "No poking the Sakae! I'm a delicate creature and I demand to not be jabbed with fingers!" Kohaku couldn't help herself that time; she laughed aloud and didn't attempt to hide it. Sakae clapped her hands together in delight. "I knew it!" She probed Kohaku's arm, poking it frantically. "I knew it! You did laugh!" She turned her attention towards Light. "She did laugh, Light! I knew it!"

Momentarily reverting back to his former self, Light genuinely smiled. "I can see that." Relaxed in his chair, he stared at them. "For a moment there, I thought you two had forgotten about me." Beside him, Ryuk silently watched, taking in the sudden scene of affection.

Kohaku's laughter died down and she smirked at him. "Oh, we definitely forgot all about you, Light. Probably because of your natural glow of boredom." He pouted, demanding to know who thought him as boring. "Uh, me; I think you're boring. Did you _not_ hear my previous words? Should I repeat them, your royal majesty of disinterest? Man, you concentrate on one thing and ignore the rest, but hey, I guess that's just part of your personality, which is, you know, mostly boring and a bit overly dramatic." Sakae giggled, nodding slightly.

Light glared at her. "Are you making fun of me?"

"Perhaps." Kohaku continued smirking. "That's what best-friends are for. They make fun of your flaws, the ones that everyone else is oblivious of." Since her mood was still positive, she gave her friends some additional affection; without hesitation, she hugged Sakae and, reluctantly, did the same with Light. Shortly afterwards, when Light brought the Death Note back out, her mood soured back into negative territory. Ultimately, Sakae's mood was brought down, too.

 _That afternoon, absolutely everything about their friendship changed..._

Interrupting the program displaying on the television, a special worldwide broadcast from INTERPOL began airing. Inside what the teens assumed was ICPO, a man in a suit was sitting at a desk. As the three watched the television with slight interest, the man started speaking. "I head up an International Police Task Force, which includes all member nations. I am Lind L. Tailor, otherwise known as L." Light and Sakae appeared dumbfounded by the introduction, but Kohaku seemed indifferent. "Criminals around the world are being murdered by a serial killer. I consider this crime to be the most atrocious act of murder in history. I will not rest until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down. I will find you."

Light stared at the television, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape as he gawked. Sakae, standing behind him, frowned, arms crossed as she hugged herself, fidgeting on her feet. Kohaku, standing beside Sakae, remained unfazed, but interested; she wasn't concerned about potentially being found out but was curious about the man's abilities of having such happen. Logically, she felt that he wasn't L; the man never showed himself before, so why would he suddenly go against everything he built? It didn't make sense; perhaps Lind was just a stand-in or something.

Behind the three, Ryuk watched the television. "He seems certain he'll catch you."

Humming, Light's expression turned boastful. "That fool. He'll never find us." A crazy look soon replaced the boast as he stood from his chair, picking up the Death Note. His intense gaze remained locked on the television. "He'll have to get this first and as long as the police don't find it, none of us can be convicted. That makes catching us absolutely impossible." Dropping the notebook onto the desk with a _plop_ , he sat back down and relaxed. "I anticipated that the police would get involved and that something like this might happen."

"Of course you did," Kohaku uttered. "Why wouldn't you?" She glanced away from the television momentarily. " _I feel like he contradicted himself, but I could be wrong; he said Lind wouldn't be able to find us, but then said that we can't be convicted if the police don't find the Death Note. So, we can't be found, but also, we can be found eventually. I'm confusing myself at this point. Although, I wonder which will happen; will L be unable to find us or will the police be unable to locate the notebook?_ " She looked at Light, studying his manic expression. " _Even if we get caught and they find the Death Note, I'm almost certain that Sakae and I will be safe from a death penalty since we never wrote a name in that notebook._ "

"...Is persons a word?" Sakae asked, trying to avoid her building anxiety. Kohaku hummed positively, gaining her attention. "Really?" She blinked as her friend nodded. "Huh. Well, you learn something new everyday..." She glanced back at the television, trying to keep her worries away.

Lind started speaking again, calling out Kira for being _evil_. Hell broke loose inside the bedroom; Light lost his cool, standing back up as he glared at the television. "I'm not evil, I am justice! I protect the innocent and those who fear evil! I'm the one who will become the god of a new world that everyone desires! All those who oppose that god, they are the ones who are truly evil!"

Sakae trembled, taking a step away from Light. "Please, calm down... Don't do anything rash..."

Light opened the Death Note, his pen ready. "What the fuck are you doing?!" Kohaku exclaimed. "Light, don't you fucking dare! Don't be so goddamn stupid! He's just a professional speaking his opinion! You can't kill him because of that! It goes against our principles! Not everybody is gonna like you and your ways, so stop this! Put down the pen already, damn it!" Ignoring her, Light started writing Lind's name. "Stop it!" She reached towards him, only to get elbowed in the side. She grunted in pain. "What the fuck, Light...?!" she yelled, not accepting her failure to stop him. Never did she think that he would deliberately go after innocent people... They were only supposed to kill criminals... Why would he do that...?

Sakae was in shock. "Light, what did you do...?" That man was gonna die in front of millions worldwide... He didn't deserve that... No one did... How could he...? He was innocent...

Forty seconds passed quickly; Lind L. Tailor gasped as he grasped his chest, gripping his shirt tightly as he struggled for breath and not a moment later, he collapsed against the desk, no longer breathing. Light maniacally laughed as two suited men with sunglasses removed Lind's body from view. Nearby, Kohaku and Sakae looked on in horror; they could barely recognize him anymore. However, when Light's laughter paused suddenly, the females looked back towards the screen, their eyes widening; displaying on the television was a simple screenshot of the letter, _L_. "Ah," the real L said, through a voice modifier. "I had to test this, just in case, but I-I never thought it would actually happen. Kira… It seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it. Listen to me, Kira. If you did, indeed, kill Lind L. Tailor, the man who you just saw die on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me. The police arrested him in absolute secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard of him on TV or through the internet. It appears not even you have access to information about these types of criminals."

Kohaku sighed in relief. "It was just an inmate, some random asshole we weren't aware of. Thank fuck for that. Holy shit." Hands on her hips, she leaned forward slightly as she released another sigh of relief. "Jesus Christ." She threw her hands in the air. "Hallelujah, there is a God and he, she, it, whatever isn't Light! Thank fuck for that, too!" Light glared at her furiously but said nothing; how could he be God if he was so easily deceived? He'd have to make up for his mistake. As he looked away from Kohaku, she looked towards him. " _This motherfucker could've killed someone that hadn't done anything wrong! What the fuck was he thinking?! If he honestly thinks doing such will make people love him more, he is mistaken! Killing innocents will make everyone fear him, not praise him!_ " Looking towards the television, she found herself grinning despite her anger. "L is one smart bastard," she stated aloud, placing a finger to her lips. " _I wonder what he really looks like..._ "

Sighing in relief, Sakae relaxed a bit. However, she was still quite dismayed. "He's definitely got one on Light," she mumbled. She shook her head slightly, glancing down at her trembling hands. " _Light could've killed an innocent man... He would've killed one because he felt insulted... He didn't even hesitate... He didn't pause to think it over... He just did it... He hurt Kohaku when she tried to stop him, but maybe that wasn't intentional... I don't know... I just... I never thought he'd..."_ She blinked back tears. " _He's further gone than I originally thought..._ "

"But I assure you, L is real. I do exist. Now… Try to kill me!" L challenged. Light stared at the television incredulously. Kohaku nearly found herself snickering because not only was she being entertained but she felt like rooting for the mysterious man. Although she was eager to see more of L's capabilities, she didn't entirely wish for Light to get caught; he was still her buddy. "What's wrong? Go ahead! Come on, right now! Kill me! Can't you do it?" L questioned through the television. Light clenched his fists and glared at Kohaku again when she spoke ( _"He sure as hell can't kill you, L."_ ). In the background of the bedroom, Ryuk was laughing his ass off. "Well, Kira, it seems you can't kill me after all. So, there are some people you can't kill. You've given me a useful hint. A dealer to a saver, I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan. I had planned to broadcast this message around the world until we found you, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I now know where you are."

"Damn," Kohaku commented as Ryuk laughed louder. "He really is one smart bastard, holy fucking shit."

"The police treated your first killing as an unrelated incident, but in actuality, the first of your victims was a suspect in Shinjuku. Of all the criminals that recently died of heart attacks, this one's crime was, by far, the least serious. Furthermore, his crime was only ever reported inside Japan. I used that information to deduce this much; you are in Japan and your first victim was little more than an experiment, which means you haven't been killing for very long. We decided to broadcast in Kanto first because of its large population, and, luckily, we found you. To be completely honest with you, I never expected it would go this well… But it won't be too long now before I'll be able to sentence you to death. Naturally, I am very interested to know how you're able to commit these murders without being present, but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you… Let's meet again soon, Kira." The broadcast cut out, leaving the screen with static, a fuzzy sound filling the silence of the bedroom. Kohaku and Sakae glanced at one another.

"Really? He's gonna sentence us to death?" Light questioned as he stared at the screen, ignoring Kohaku's comment ( _"What's this 'us' you're speaking of? It's you he's after."_ ). "Sounds interesting." He smirked. "I accept your challenge, L."

Ryuk watched with joy. " _Each of them has to hunt down the other without knowing the other's name or face and the first one whose identity is revealed will die. Humans are so much fun._ " His time on Earth was becoming more amusing; he wondered how long the chase would go on.

"L," Light stated to himself, causing Kohaku and Sakae to look towards him. "I will hunt you down wherever you're hiding and I will eliminate you! I am justice!" He glanced towards his friends and eyed their looks of brief amusement. "What? I am!"

Kohaku raised an eyebrow. "Mm-hmm, right. Well then, _Justice_ , mind answering this question for me? Earlier, you said that you'd kill _anyone_ that was against you because you'd consider them to be truly evil, correct?" Light nodded. "Well, I'm certainly in a pickle, aren't I?" she quizzed, causing him to look confused. "Oh? You didn't see this coming? I thought you were smarter than this." She placed her hands on her hips, staring at him with confidence. "I don't wanna help you anymore." Immediately, Light gave her an evil look; if looks could kill, Kohaku would be _sixteen_ feet under. "Glare at me all you fucking want, hate me all you goddamn wish, and kill me if you fucking must, but I'm done with this bullshit." She glared. "You went too far. None of us had known he was an inmate and you _still_ killed him. He could've been an innocent man, but you didn't care because he called you evil. Guess what? You _are_ evil, in the eyes of perhaps half of the fucking world. You just gonna kill all of them? Kill them for having opposite opinions? You're a goddamn asshole and you're fucking stupid if you think that you can rule the world with fear." Approaching him, she shoved him. "I'm not just gonna sit around and watch you kill innocent people. I'm not gonna stop you either because I doubt I'll be able to, but I know that I can step away from this, _if_ you fucking let me." She fought back tears; she wanted to hate him, but he was her best-friend. She hoped that he'd, at least, spare her for opposing him. "This isn't what I wanted. It was supposed to just be criminals but even so, we shouldn't had started this mess. It's only caused trouble." She stared at him, sadness in her eyes. "I'd ask you to stop, but that would be wishful thinking..."

Although Light felt extremely angry, he didn't hate her enough to wanna kill her; they had been through enough for him to spare her. However, if something like that happened a second time, he'd probably end her life; he couldn't have anyone compromising the mission. He'd give her a second chance and he hoped, for her sake, that she'd gain her senses and rejoin him; she just needed some time away. He looked towards Sakae; she was still on his side, right? "I..." She hesitated, taking a step towards them. "I agree with Kohaku." Light clenched his fists again; her, too? He'd have to give her a second chance, too? Maybe he should kill them; however, once that thought crossed his mind, he immediately pushed it away. No, he wouldn't kill either of them. _Not yet_. They could still change their mind. Maybe L riled them up; maybe that was why they were talking nonsense. "I was always against this. I should've never agreed to anything, but I couldn't just let you two do this alone. Now, after witnessing that, I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry, I really am." Tears in her eyes, she took another step closer, standing beside Kohaku as she stared at Light. "I have faith in you, enough that I know you won't just murder us in cold blood. We're your best-friends and we always will be, but we can't help you anymore. I promise we won't say anything; we're just as at fault as you are. If the time comes where you go down fighting, we'll go down with you but until then, please don't expect us to help you."

Light didn't want to hear anymore; he slammed his fists against the desk, surprisingly not alerting his family. "Get the hell outta my house. Both of you. Leave before I change my mind about sparing your lives." He glared at the desk, refusing to look at them. Without another word, Kohaku and Sakae left the bedroom. After a few minutes, he spoke to himself as he stared at the Death Note. "I'll finish this on my own if I have to." He glanced towards the pen, a brief thought of killing them appearing in his mind again. Pushing it back once more, he sat down and started working on trying to calm down...

* * *

 **Fact One (Not Really): Keep close in mind that I won't always mention outfits. Whenever I don't say what they are wearing, they're likely still wearing their school uniforms that I never bothered to describe because you can just imagine a typical uniform of sorts for them and stuff. I can't wait until L shows up, physically, because he always wears the same outfit; I only have to mention it once.**

 **Fact Two: If anything confused you; Sakae never wanted to get involved but was practically peer pressured into doing such, Kohaku only wanted criminals to die but seeing that Light didn't hesitate to kill Lind (whether he was innocent or not) and seeing that he wants L dead (and L is a detective), she is now entirely against what she had started since the innocent are getting involved. Does that make sense? I certainly hope so.**

 **Fact Three:** **I'm not entirely certain if Kohaku's personality is still all over the place; when I first made the story with my best-friend, I didn't have a set personality for her but I think I fixed the slight mess I originally made. I hope I did, anyway. Sorry if I didn't. I tried. Seriously, I did.**

 **Fact Four: Both females will be against Light killing innocent people (slight spoiler there for those who have never seen the show, sorry but not sorry) but that will not make them hate him, not this early on anyways. Light is only angry with them; he will not try to harm them with the Death Note. _Yet_.**

 _ **Revamped: Sometime in February, 2019; March 8th-15th, 2019 (minor edits); August 11th-September 1st, 2019 (more minor edits; removal of some** **irrelevant** **information )**_

 ** _Original Word Count: Approximately Near 7,000_**

 ** _Word Count Before Re-Edit: 15,173_**

 ** _New Word Count: 11,980_**


	5. 04: Forgiveness

**Many apologies, everyone, for such a long wait; I've been busy and lazy, mostly lazy admittedly. The previous chapters have successfully been re-edited, so please, go re-read them before reading this one.**

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 _Forgiveness is the action or process of forgiving someone, or being forgiven, for an unfortunate negative circumstance. Not all receive such forgiveness for their actions, depending on either the severity of it or the relation between the persons giving and receiving forgiveness._

 _[Definition Comes from Google Search and My Own Knowledge]_

* * *

 **Warnings:** _Errors of Any Sorts, Possible Out-of-Character Moments, Epic Profanity, Some Violence, Some Cringe Worthy Descriptions and Dialogue (Sorry, Not Sorry; I Ain't Perfect), More Character Introductions, Some Characters Chat More Than Others, Some Information Comes from the Wikipedia of the Anime/Manga, Convenience, Realistic (To An Extent; So, Not Entirely Realistic), Potential Information Drops, Some Irrelevant Information,_ _Attempted Sexual Assault,_ _and More Flashback Snippets_

 **Changes from Original Edition:** _Errors Were Fixed (However, Some New Ones May Have Arrived, Which Is Why I Left That As A Warning), Dialogue Was Slightly Altered/Added/Deleted, Descriptions Are Occasionally Better Than They Once Were, New Scenes Were Created, Some New Information Was Revealed, and Some Actions/Reactions to Situations Were Changed_

 **Additional Information:** _Lots of original work located within the chapter, more so than originally. Episode three is very slightly followed, just as in the original work, because I/we wanted more focus on the original characters this chapter. Many apologizes for not being perfect when describing appearances of canon characters; the site I get the information from has very little stats sometimes, so I also go by what I'm seeing when I look at pictures of them. It's far easier for me to describe non-canon characters (OC's)._ _Remember, the timeline will be slightly off with the anime/manga._

* * *

Silently, Kohaku and Sakae walked down the empty street, dimly lit lamp-posts shining the way; Kohaku was fuming quietly, hands clenched at her sides, and Sakae was feeling large amounts of sadness, tears threatening to spill. Neither female could fully grasp that Light killed somebody; they presumed the man was _innocent_ before the opposite was revealed afterwards, but it didn't change the fact that Light hadn't hesitated to kill the convict _before_ they learnt the truth about him. In fact, that was what made it worse; he just went ahead and killed the man, not caring if he was good or bad in a logical standard. It wasn't right; Light wanted perfection, but there was always going to be someone who'd think differently than him; it was how the balance of mankind worked.

They were nearly a block away from Light's house when Kohaku finally snapped, unable to contain her building rage. Glancing around for anything to damage, she spotted a trashcan and wasted no time knocking it over before landing a few powerful kicks into its side, creating a massive dent in the weak material; she was frustrated, mad at herself and Light for taking things so far, blaming herself the most for placing the idea into his head. However, perhaps he already had the suggestion in mind, seeing as he agreed with her without much thought; even so, she felt like she was to blame. _I wish we never found the damn thing..._

"Kohaku..." Sakae uttered, her teary gaze on her friend. She felt frustrated herself, mostly upset, but violence wasn't going to solve their problems; besides, they had seen enough callousness already. Approaching her fuming friend, she reached out; before her hand landed on Kohaku's shoulder, her wrist was smacked away. Instantly, she became disheartened; she didn't deserve frustrations being taken out on her, too. "...Kohaku...?"

"Don't fucking touch me!" Kohaku yelled, avoiding Sakae's gaze as she failed to control her emotions. "Just... Just fucking don't..." Her voice was breaking; slowly turning, she faced her friend, a few tears streaming down her face. "This is my fault... All of my goddamn fault..." Her gaze intensified as she glared at Sakae. "So, don't you fucking dare try to comfort me when I don't deserve it! Light wouldn't be this way if I hadn't suggested-!" She stopped mid-sentence, shaking her head. "Just... Don't say anything else to me, Sakae... Not right now, goddamn it..." She sniffled, wiping her tears and blinking back the ones that still threatened to spill. "Come on, I'll take you home..." She started walking down the empty street again, holding back her remaining frustrations.

Releasing tears of her own, Sakae silently followed. She could certainly see why Kohaku blamed herself, but she didn't see her as the _sole_ cause; they all had a say in what happened, so they all were at fault; they could've stopped upon realizing people were actually dying, but they hadn't. Personally, she allowed herself to be peer-pressured, but she didn't hate her friends for it; they thought they were doing the right thing. _Our worlds are going downhill... Things are going to be different now... So much different..._

* * *

They were only two blocks away from the apartment building when Kohaku stopped escorting Sakae home. She didn't bother sticking around to be certain that Sakae was safe, nor did she even state a goodbye as she strolled off into the darkness, heading towards her own home that was many blocks away; she still wasn't in the right state of mind to care about anything and she'd likely wonder if Sakae got home safely when her common sense finally returned. She grumbled; _I should've known better; we should've gotten rid of the Death Note when we had the chance. L has a lead on us and Light is getting more fucked up by the minute... We're fucking screwed..._

Eventually, she found herself standing in the middle of the street, staring at her house; it was protruding the only source of light in the darkness. Hesitation kept her from entering; she was stressed enough already. She strained to listen for any sounds coming from her home, but she heard nothing. With a sigh, she approached the door and entered, shutting it behind her gently.

She strolled through the house, glancing into each room before reaching the kitchen. Inside, her parents were seated at the dining table, quietly eating; that was better than them yelling, she supposed. They didn't notice her, giving her time to collect her thoughts; she couldn't recall the last time they were civilized, other than the time she got stabbed. Thinking further, she realized she hardly socialized with them because of their constant fighting, but honestly, she didn't care enough either way to hold a stable relation with them; she'd rather be in her bedroom, doing anything else.

She made a move to head towards her bedroom, but immediately paused when her father started speaking. "You're home early." _Goddamn it; they noticed me, fucking hell, why?!_ She faced the kitchen again, eyeing her father first; Kyoya's hair was short and raven-black, his eyes were light blue and mostly hidden behind glasses, and he wore an office uniform. She wondered why he wasn't frustrated like usual; perhaps he had a great day at work or something.

She glanced elsewhere, avoiding eye contact as she felt the urge to explode again. _How the fuck am I early? I wandered the streets for hours. At least, I think I did. Maybe he means I arrived earlier than usual. Whatever, I should probably avoid being smart with him; I don't need to hear him yelling throughout the night again, not today anyways._ "I didn't feel like staying at Light's, so I came home..."

"Is something the matter, sweetheart?" her mother asked, watching her closely. Kohaku blinked, confused; _why does she suddenly care?_ She stared at her mother, unintentionally admiring the woman's overall appearance; Yue's long dark-brown hair was held up in a high-ponytail, her eyes were a dark shade of blue, and she was dressed in a bright yellow dress with matching heels; Kohaku guessed that she had gone out with friends earlier that day or something, _not that she actually cared about that_.

She continuously stared at her parents, different emotions swirling inside; anger, sadness, disbelief, betrayal, frustration, and every other negative feeling. All of it was becoming too much; she couldn't handle it anymore. Just like with Sakae, she started releasing a few stress tears. To her surprise, her parents jumped out of their chairs and hurried over to her; maybe she passed out in the street and was having a fever dream because there was no way they were _that_ worried about her.

"What's wrong?" Kyoya asked, sounding panicked as he gripped her shoulders. "Did something happen? Are you hurt?" _Everything is wrong,_ _I'm not hurt, and something happened, but I can't tell you why I feel bad and I can't even tell you what happened exactly. Also, I really wish you would stop shouting in my fucking face. I swear, the one other time you guys worry about me and it's during a time where I don't want either of you worrying about me. Oi..._

"You can tell us anything," Yue stated, pulling Kohaku from Kyoya's grasp so she could hug their daughter. "I promise we'll listen and help you in any way we can." _Sure you will, right after you get mad, but I'm not about to reveal anything important. I'm on my own here..._

Kohaku didn't understand why they were acting as if they cared; the only other time they acted worried was when she was on the verge of bleeding to death from a stab wound and they had bothered her for, like, an entire week before they went back to arguing with each other. Other than that, they always yelled and complained about her, and they whined about everything else, too; sometimes, maybe most of the time, her mother would defend her actions but Kohaku didn't care about that because the arguments always kept her up late and no amount of defense in her honor was gonna make her forget that. Although this was the second time her parents worried about her, _from what she could actually remember_ , she decided _not_ to let the rare occurrence go to waste. "..." She wasn't sure how to explain what happened, though, _without really explaining what happened_. "...My... My friend hates me, I think..." She sniffled.

"Tell us what happened," Kyoya demanded urgently.

Kohaku glanced at him as she pushed away from her mother. She thought momentarily, wondering if she should let them know who she was referring to; her parents were very aware of Light and Sakae, but she could easily lie and say some random name. However, she quickly decided not to fib. "I... I made plans with my friends and very recently backed out..." She sighed, a few more tears escaping. "...Light, he didn't like that... He kicked Sakae and I outta his house. That's why I'm here instead... He was so quick to yell at us and he just... He threw us out like we were nothing..." _That's exactly what happened, except I can't let them know about the Death Note; they must never know._

Yue spoke in a reassuring tone. "Oh, honey, he's probably just angry about the sudden change of plans." _No fucking duh, Mother._ "He might've been looking forward to things. What happened between you three was just in the moment; give it time and he'll come around." _I highly doubt his anger will die, Mother; that Death Note has him corrupted to hell; he's the fucking devil now._

 _Fuck this bullshit!_ Kohaku needed to know why they were suddenly so concerned. "Why do you even fucking care?! You never cared before! All you two ever do is argue about things I do or about shit that doesn't matter! Hell, the only other time you didn't scream at each other was when I nearly died!" She moved further away from them. They stared at her with wide eyes, surprised by her outburst. "Also, for your information, I've always known you wanted a son instead! I figured that one out years ago! You want a golden child, not some punk ass who rarely shows positive emotions and has only two friends! All I ever do now when you yell is wonder why the hell you never tried for another kid! If you want a son so badly, make or adopt one instead of constantly complaining about it! Goddamn!" _Finally, I've released all that I've kept inside, mostly. Now, I just gotta wait for their shock to vanish and they'll start yelling back at me. What-fucking-ever._ She brushed her tears away.

What happened next _wasn't_ what she expected; her mother began sobbing as she moved to sit in a chair at the dining table again and her father simply sighed as he stared at her sadly. "We're sorry you heard what we yelled in anger," Kyoya stated with a frown, speaking for his wife as well. "None of it was true. We love you as you are and we're sorry we made you feel so unwanted and unloved because that's furthest from the truth. I shouldn't have let my stress from work affect my behavior here. We've only ever been worried about you and we should've shown that concern in a better manner." He approached her and hugged her. "You're our little girl. We'll always be worried about you. We'll always love you. Don't ever think otherwise."

 _That's a bunch of bullshit, too! They're just sorry they got caught!_ "Whatever... You guys are confusing; you've got the oddest ways of showing you care..." Kohaku wiped the rest of her tears, calming down pretty quickly. She pulled away from her father's touch, not wanting his comfort. He continued to frown, but stepped back, turning towards his sobbing wife; he approached her next and held her in his arms, rubbing her back. "So, you guys don't think I'm a mistake...?" she softly asked. A small part of her wanted to believe they, or rather her father, was speaking the truth.

Yue, still crying, looked towards her daughter. "You were never a mistake to us... Never..."

Kohaku shifted on her feet uncomfortably; she didn't know what to do. _Should I help Dad comfort her? Should I go to my room now? I don't know..._ Uncertain, she just stood there, watching them. "...I'm sorry for questioning your love for me... I'm... I'm not that good with people... I don't trust most... Ummm..." She didn't know what to say either.

Sensing her discomfort, Kyoya took pity on her. "You should head to bed. It's been a long night. We can talk more in the morning." Feeling relief and some guilt, Kohaku nodded, uttering a quick goodnight before she turned and headed towards her bedroom; she was glad to be out of that situation, but felt bad for being so awkward that she hadn't been able to do anything to ease her mother's obvious pain. Hopefully, her father could do that for her...

* * *

Sakae walked down her street, negativity evading her mind every second. _Did I drive Kohaku into leaving? Did I upset her that much? Was she too distraught to think logically? Was that all about what happened with Light?_ So many things kept crossing her mind; it was unbelievable. Nothing was going well anymore. _Light thinks otherwise, which explains why he got so pissed, but that doesn't make it right; it makes it worse. I wonder if we'll ever be able to convince him to stop..._ She paused her walking and leaned against the brick wall. "Why does everything have to be so difficult...?"

 _"Have at her, fellas!"_

 _"You goddamn brat! You're next!"_

 _"Don't you fucking touch her, ass-face!"_

She shuddered, frantically shaking her head. _Not again... I don't want to hear those voices anymore... Why won't they be quiet...?_ Since they began their usage of the Death Note, her memories of her parents death would occasionally play in her mind; they had been triggered out of the box she locked them in, tormenting her like they did for months after the actual incident. _I don't know if I can escape these memories again... They just won't go away; I can't push them away for long..._

Suddenly, she heard somebody calling out her name. Glancing to her right, she spotted her older brother walking towards her. Ryuichi was holding a briefcase, signaling that he might've only just gotten off work. She felt relief; she wasn't alone anymore. Getting off the wall, she met him halfway, placing herself in the middle of his path; she needed a small distraction from her negative feelings that were threatening to come back out. "Hey, Ry. How was work?" She hoped her voice didn't crack.

 _It hadn't_. She received a shrug, followed by a short verbal response. "It was work." He started walking again, moving past her, and glanced back to signal for her to follow. She did, a few steps behind him. As they walked the small distance to their apartment, she admired him; he was a foot over her in height, he had shaggy red hair that fell past his ears, he was dressed in his baggy working clothes, and, though she couldn't see them anymore, he shared the same eyes as her, only his held no regret and some sorrow. _Perhaps someday, he'll marry and be happier_ , she thought, her gaze moving to the ground. Eventually, they found themselves heading up the stairs of the apartment building. "What happened today?" Ryuichi suddenly asked.

Sakae crossed her arms, hugging herself as she remembered what happened. _So much for a distraction..._ "Kohaku and I are in a slight disagreement with Light. It's no big deal, though. We'll settle it the next time we see each other." _Hopefully_.

"I see," he responded. "What was it about?"

Sakae metaphorically waved off the question, making her reply short. "It's really nothing to worry about. Like I said before, we'll settle it soon. It's no big deal." _Except it really is a big deal... I wish I didn't have to hide these things from him... But how else will I be able to protect him from it...?_

Ryuichi made no further responses, silence forming between them. When they finally reached their apartment, he unlocked the door and they stepped inside. It wasn't relatively large, just big enough for the two of them; there was a kitchen, a living room, a single bathroom which they had to share, and two small bedrooms. Sakae went straight for the kitchen, seeking for something to munch on. "I'm gonna fix dinner," Ryuichi announced as he approached her from behind. "Do you want some?"

"Nope." Sakae pulled an apple out from the fridge, roughly closing its door back. "I'm not that hungry tonight." She slightly shrugged, acting as if everything was no big deal; it was, _occasionally_ , easy for her to pretend everything was fine, it came naturally _sometimes_. As she stared at the apple in her hands, she realized she probably wouldn't even be able to eat it. _Ryuk loves apples... He's our... No, he's Light's Shinigami... Shinigami exist... A notebook that can kill people exists... One simple argument with him could make me no longer exist... Everything's getting so much more complicated..._

Ryuichi crossed his arms, staring at the back of her head. "Sakae, _when_ will you eat with me again? Because this grudge you've got, it can't go on forever."

 _Grudge?_ Sakae turned towards her brother and stared back; she could practically see sadness in his eyes. _Oh... Right... That grudge... That's been the least of my concerns lately..._ He hadn't been there when the burglars killed their parents; he hadn't been there to witness all the horrible shit they did; he hadn't been there when Kohaku came to save her; he wasn't even there when the cops came to rescue them from further injury; _he wasn't there to stop it_. She started glaring at him; remembering her grudge and everything that she ever dealt with were beginning to take a toll on her _again_. "The day you realize you can't control what I feel and what I do is the day I'll eat with you again!" she suddenly yelled, releasing her anger upon him when most of it wasn't truly directed towards him in general. She pushed past him and headed to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her as she left Ryuichi stunned.

He stood there in the kitchen, frozen. _The last time she had an outburst like that was when I had shown up in her hospital room the night our parents..._ He sighed, his arms dropping to his sides. He stared where his sister once stood. Did she really think that way about him...? She thought he was controlling...? He was just trying to be a good brother. He sighed again, shaking his head as he looked towards her bedroom door; there was no way in hell he would leave things as they were. He approached her room and knocked on the door softly. "Sakae, please, open the door."

"Why?" She was leaning against the other side, holding back her tears.

"Please, Sakae. Can we just talk?" he pleaded.

There was silence on the other side of the door. After a moment, it opened and Sakae glared at him again, tears filling her eyes. "Why?" she angrily repeated. "Why do you want to talk to me now? Our "disagreements" never stopped you from ignoring me before, so why is it stopping you now?"

Ryuichi didn't reply to her repeated question. Instead, he pulled her into a tight hug. "I..." He sighed. "I know you're mad at me, and I know you still blame me for what happened, but you're still my little sister. I care about you. So, whatever's going on right now, you can tell me. I don't want you holding back anymore; I don't want you hurting anymore." He didn't expect anything from her, so it surprised him when he started feeling her arms wrapping around him. "So, are you okay...?"

 _Not really, no..._ Sakae pressed her face into his shirt to hide her tears. "I don't blame you... Not anymore... I haven't for a while... I just..." It was hard to explain her feelings when she had to keep a secret. "...So much has been going on... I'm really scared, Ryu..." She sobbed into his clothing. "Light... He's changing... I mean, he just... He's been acting really strange lately... He basically sent Kohaku and I away because we aren't agreeing with him about _something_ anymore... I'm really scared of what will happen to our friendship... And I'm terrified of what's happening with the world... It's all too much..."

Ryuichi wasn't certain of how to respond. He awkwardly patted her head as he attempted to comfort her. "It's-It's okay, Sakae. Everything's going to be fine..." Except he didn't know if everything was going to be fine because everything was changing. "I'll always be here."

 _Don't make promises you can't keep..._ Even so, his words made her feel better. She sniffled. "Thank you..."

"You're welcome," he replied back. He pulled away from the hug. "Shall we go eat dinner, then...? After I make it, of course, but shall we...?" She gave him a false negative look before smiling, wiping her tears away as she nodded. Even though everything else was going bad, maybe they could make something else good again...

* * *

At the ICPO headquarters, officials were gathered within an office, all sitting at desks; at one end of the room, Watari sat behind a laptop that displayed the letter L. Reports of statistics were being given out to everyone by Kanzo Mogi, a tall, broad man in his thirties with short, spiky black hair, dark eyes, and formal wear like everyone else in the room. Beginning with the tip line reports, they received three-thousand twenty-nine responses about the murders via telephone and e-mail; however, most callers had been either curious citizens and prank calls, leaving only fourteen people who claimed knowledge of knowing or seeing Kira; such accounts were followed up and carefully documented, but nobody could provide any actual information that wasn't already publicly available; additionally, at least twenty-one of the callers had claimed to be Kira, so files were created for all of them. Victim reports followed shortly afterwards; it was confirmed that information of heart attack victims were publicly available in Japan prior to their deaths, all deaths occurred between the hours of four in the afternoon and two in the morning on weekdays with sixty-eight percent occurring between eight in the evening and midnight, and weekends, plus holidays, seemed to be the exception to the rule since the times of deaths varied much more widely during them.

Ultimately, L gave a positive response to the information; he suspected that Kira could be a student, given the times of death. His words made everyone mumble to themselves about it. Furthermore, he revealed that Kira was, _allegedly_ , being driven by a very idealistic notion of justice, likely aspired to be a godlike figure, and had a very childish concept of right and wrong; again, that was merely speculation. Even so, he recommended them to re-examine any assumptions they made because they needed to consider every possibility; in his belief, it was the shortest route to finding and arresting Kira.

Mr. Yagami questioned for anyone else to speak up if they had something to add. Unfortunately, someone did; Matsuda thought it was the perfect time to state that, although he didn't support Kira or condone the murders, throughout the world, but especially Japan, they observed a dramatic decrease in the number of violent crimes committed. Ultimately, just about everyone in the room became annoyed by his statement; they already expected that sort of outcome. Seeing their reaction, Matsuda visibly appeared panicked but when Mr. Yagami responded calmly to his statement, he just sat back down silently, embarrassed.

After giving his thanks to everyone, L requested something that was directed to the teams investigating the victims, TV news, and internet; he wanted them to go back and take a closer examination of the exact way the victims' identities were made public and additionally wanted them to be as thorough as possible, and wanted information on whether or not photos of the victims were available to the public in Japan. After that, the meeting ended...

* * *

Midnight ( _December 6th_ ) arrived and Kohaku couldn't fall asleep; too much was on her mind. _How much does L know? Is he just a hint away from figuring us, erm, Kira out? Is he days away from locating him? Is he right outside Light's door? No, he wouldn't arrest Kira personally; someone else, perhaps Mr. Yagami, would do it... Hell, I wonder what the man will think when he learns Light's a killer... Speaking of which, why hasn't he killed me yet? I'm sure he's thinking about it... Or am I just getting paranoid for no reason...? Perhaps, because of our friendship, I'm safe...? I hope Sakae is alright... I shouldn't have left her alone..._

She huffed, sitting up in her bed. She started rubbing her head. "Fucking hell... I can't sleep with all that racket," she uttered, sighing. Gazing down at her attire, which consisted of a black tank-top and matching jogging pants, she shrugged. "Eh, this is good enough." She stood and approached the single window; she was going to sneak out, _again_. Lifting the window seal, a loud sound was created and she froze; _did they hear that?_ She waited for her parents to burst into her bedroom, expecting to get caught red-handed, but no one came running; _nope, they didn't_. Patiently, as to not cause noise that would bring her parents, she climbed out the open window, letting out a long breath of relief when she succeeded to be silent during her escape. She was free to roam the streets.

Thankfully, the streetlights always remained on during the night, continuously serving as her guide through the darkness. She wasn't aiming to go somewhere in particular; she just wanted to wander and get her thoughts straight. _I wonder if Light is killing someone else right now. He probably is; he doesn't take many breaks. I hope Ryuk is annoying the hell outta him. He makes a real good distraction, that's for damn sure. Maybe he's juggling apples. That's certainly something I'd like to see someday._ She continued strolling down the sidewalk, barely avoiding stepping into glass from a broken beer bottle. _I should've thrown on some shoes before I left. Too late now._ She'd just be extra careful with where she was stepping.

She didn't know how long she was walking, but as long as her thoughts calmed the fuck down, it didn't matter; eventually, she would turn around and head home, but until then, somewhere forwards was her destination. She started strolling past an alleyway, but paused when she heard a sobbing female, followed by the rough tone of a man. _Oh, don't fucking tell me that someone's..._ She glanced towards the alleyway, immediately spotting the silhouettes of three persons and without hesitation, she stepped inside. The streetlight was barely shining into the alleyway, but it was enough, so she could see the faces of the men and woman when she was close enough; the woman, thankfully fully clothed, was pinned against the wall, one man holding her in place whilst the other roughly fondled her. The men started laughing at the woman's misery and Kohaku couldn't stand the vulgar words they were using, couldn't stand what they planned to do.

She started seeing red. Suddenly, when she wasn't too far from them, she started sprinting at the man who was beginning to lift the woman's shirt. He heard her coming, but didn't do anything (apart from glancing her way) when she swung her fist into his face, knocking him flat onto the concrete ground. Never stopping, she jumped on him before he could even process what had happened and continued smashing her fist into his face. As she did that, the other man released the woman out of shock and his would've-been victim ran out of the alleyway, screaming her head off. Kohaku didn't stop hitting the man in her grasp, though, not until she felt intense pain in her left leg; she hadn't known about the gun.

She flopped off the unconscious, and fucked-up faced, man, landing on her back as she reached towards her wounded leg; _I should've seen that one coming_. Instantly, the other man was on _her_ , pinning her hands above her head with one of his own as he smirked down at her, waving the gun in her face, most likely out of spite. _Fucking idiot._ She kneed him in the crotch with her injured leg while he was fucking around, hissing in pain as she did so but she was happy to see the man hurting, too. She quickly kneed him in the nose afterwards, making him drop to the ground; his gun dropped from his hand, too, as he held his face. She swatted it away as she straddled him, her fist aimed at his head. As he groaned in pain, she smirked at him. "Next time," she began. He made another quick move at her, but she hit him in the face as hard as she could, knocking him out with the blow. "Aim for the fucking head," she finished, spitting on him afterwards. Hissing, she got off the man but remained seated on the ground, her back against the wall. _Man, this hurts like a bitch,_ she thought as she gripped her injured leg, really beginning to feel the flaring pain as time passed on; adrenaline rushes could only be so helpful for a short time.

"In there!" she heard a woman yell from outside the alleyway. _That woman... She came back...?_

Kohaku was flabbergasted; she hadn't seen that one coming either. Peering towards the entry of the alleyway, she could see a few silhouettes heading towards her. _How the fuck did the woman get help so damn quickly? This alley must be pretty damn close to the police headquarters or something. I'm one lucky bitch._ Soon enough, she was able to actually see the men approaching her, both with a weapon in hand; one was young, possibly a rookie, and the other, she knew him quite well. "Mr. Yagami?"

Mr. Yagami's eyes grew wide. "Kohaku?" He glanced away from her, taking in the state of the unconscious men lying nearby. He didn't say it aloud because of the situation, but he was _kinda_ impressed that she had taken down two predators without any assistance. He kneeled beside her, allowing the other cops, who were filling into the alleyway, to take care of the men.

"You know this girl, Chief?" Matsuda questioned, putting his gun away.

Kohaku glared at him, hissing through her pain. "If he didn't, he wouldn't have known my goddamn name." She rolled her eyes, forgetting her pain for a few seconds as she grew annoyed. _Why did they bring a rookie along for the ride?_ She yelped when he accidentally knocked his foot against her injured leg. _Goddamn, that hurt!_

Matsuda swallowed nervously, appearing sheepish. "R-Right." He crouched down beside her injured leg, giving Mr. Yagami a concerned glance before he looked back at Kohaku. Around them, the remaining officers were dealing with the unconscious and gravely injured criminals. "Are you wounded?"

Kohaku looked at him incredulously. _Is he really that fucking stupid?! Or is he blinded by the darkness...?_ Either way, she couldn't hold back her remark. "Am I wounded...? Am I _wounded_?! Are you fucking kidding me?! Do you _not_ see the blood flowing outta the hole in my fucking leg, the same one _you_ kicked with your clumsy ass?!" She shifted, yelping again as she clenched her fists, the pain flaring through her entire leg instead of around the wound. "Fuck!"

"The paramedics will be here any minute," she heard someone state, but she was too focused on her pain to pay attention anymore towards whoever was speaking. _They better hurry the hell up,_ she thought, _cause this pain is killing me!_ She was almost certain that Mr. Yagami started speaking to her again, but she didn't care enough to attempt listening; she just wanted the pain to go away. _Goddamn, I miss the adrenaline rush..._

The wait for the paramedics wasn't long; they arrived after another few minutes. Kohaku couldn't remember much after that; she remembered being given drugs to ease her pain and wondering if they were allowed to do that on the spot, she remembered drifting to sleep when her back hit the gurney as Mr. Yagami held her hand, and she remembered seeing his blurry face as they both entered the back of the ambulance, something else she wondered about, too; everything else was a blank when she came to in her hospital room.

Groggily, she glanced around and grimaced when her eyes finally focused. She never liked hospitals; they smelled of despair and death, two things no one would ever like unless they were a masochist, sadist, both, or whatever else. Her room looked so bland, just like any generic medical room, and it smelled like chemicals; she hated it. She glanced down at herself afterwards; she was in a hospital gown and her leg was bandaged. She felt no pain, so the drugs were still influencing her, _she assumed_. She stared at the bandages. _I'm certain it'll scar_.

Her growing discomfort of being within the hospital suddenly subsided, quickly turning into great irritation when she finally noticed that her parents were sleeping in chairs nearby; _of course they were told_. As if on cue, Mr. Yagami entered the room and the two shared a very brief conversation; the crime was kept from leaking out to Kira (she had to convince the man to give her that information) and she requested that he keep her involvement secret from her best-friends (especially Light, though she didn't voice that aloud), the man reluctantly agreeing to do so. When he left, her parents awoke from their slumber and before they could get a word out, she demanded the same from them; they weren't allowed to let Light or Sakae know. Although they questioned why their daughter asked such a request, they accepted; they wouldn't speak a word to them about it...

* * *

It was _December 9th_ ; approximately three-to-four days had passed by since the disagreement between Kohaku, Light, and Sakae. They were ignoring one another, keeping to themselves; they weren't ready to speak again, the "wounds" still too fresh. Sakae kept her mind on her studies, though she occasionally glanced at her friends during their shared classes; Kohaku kept her mind on healing and being quiet, claiming to anyone who asked that her newfound limping was from falling down some stairs; Light kept his mind on the Death Note and how he'd keep his tracks covered, and occasionally thought back to the disagreement whenever he caught a glimpse of Kohaku and Sakae but not once did he think about apologizing to them for anything he had done. Overall, they were temporarily content.

Nightfall came as quickly as the day went. Light was inside his bedroom again, but he wasn't writing within the Death Note; instead, he was helping his sister with her homework, _again_ , as Ryuk watched them from the bed, bored as hell. From time-to-time, Sayu would slip in a question about Sakae and Kohaku; she noticed they hadn't been hanging out with him. Instead of answering, he dismissed the questions and kept the topic on her math homework. Eventually, he grew tired of attempting to help her without Sakae's assistance (she made it more tolerable) and asked her to try doing the problems on her own from then on; she agreed. However, the early arrival of their father made her instantly forget about doing her work.

During dinner, there was silence. However, that quickly changed when Mr. Yagami decided to make conversation with his son about his studies. Shortly after answering and getting responses out of his mother and sister, Light questioned his father about why he was looking so tired; Mr. Yagami merely stated it was the case he was working on, not allowed to say more than that (although, he _did_ share very little information with Kohaku days prior, out of sympathy since she had been shot).

Eventually, dinner ended and Light was back inside his bedroom, using his family's shared home network to hack into his father's computer whilst Ryuk constantly watched him; it was Light's way of keeping track of the investigation. Very quickly, he learnt that the police were suspecting a student, so he began making plans to fix that problem as Ryuk cackled at the information, thinking Light would get caught soon enough but Light's new plans put a damper on those thoughts; Light was going to do as he always did, except he'd be adding the time of death, too.

As Light went about making his plan a reality, he was scrolling through a list of criminals in the police reports when several names caught his eye. Studying the entries carefully, he quickly learnt that he yet took care of the scum who changed Sakae's life forever. Writing their names down, he continued with his scrolling and soon spotted another name that captured his attention, but what he read made his eyes widen. Suddenly, Kohaku's limping came to mind and he found himself clenching his fists; _why didn't she tell me she was attacked?_ Without another thought, he wrote the names of the criminals that his friend encountered the night of their disagreement.

 _Nobody messes with my friends_ , he thought before recommencing with his plans...

* * *

 _December 10th_ went by quickly; during school hours, whilst Light was portraying the role of an innocent modeled student, twenty-three criminals had heart attacks at the specific times he had written; everything was going according to his plans. The following day ( _aka December 11th_ ), the same was occurring; twenty-three heart attacks throughout school hours while Light faked his innocence.

Lunch was taking place at the high school. Students were crowding in the cafeteria, gathering around in groups as they found their friends. In the far corner, Kohaku was sitting alone, staring out the window; she didn't plan on eating anything, just wanting some distance from everyone around her as she thought about things. On the bright side, she wasn't limping anymore, but her skin wasn't fully healed yet; _just another few days or so_. On the dark side, she couldn't get the disagreement out of her head, but only two bits of it mattered anymore; _is Light still mad? Has he killed any innocent people yet?_ Although she'd deny it aloud, she missed hanging out with Light and Sakae; they still were her only friends. _This is all my fault and I don't know how to fix it..._

She heard someone approaching and glanced towards them; it was Sakae. Nervously wrapping her arms around herself, Kohaku faced her friend completely with a neutral expression. Neither of them had a falling out, but Kohaku recalled yelling at Sakae and leaving her alone before she was in the safety of her apartment; it was the only reason why she was avoiding Sakae, too. She felt really guilty for her behavior. "I'm sorry," Kohaku uttered, the words barely escaping her mouth.

Sakae shook her head, smiling slightly. "It's okay. You were in a rough mindset." She shrugged slightly. "Actually, I was getting to that point myself, so I'm kinda glad you were the one to blow your top first. Unfortunately, I still blew mine and it was towards my brother, so..." She shifted on her feet, glancing down at them awkwardly. "We all make mistakes, especially when we're upset about something..." She glanced back up at Kohaku, barely catching her nodding in agreement. She decided to change the topic. "So, not hungry today?" Kohaku shrugged, giving her a rare smile. "Do you want something to drink, at least? I can't keep you from starving yourself, but you still need to stay hydrated or else, you'll die within a few days."

Kohaku scoffed. "I don't need a lesson about the human body and what it needs to survive." She nodded, though. "But yes, I'd like a strawberry milk, please and thank you." She removed her arms from around herself, placing them on the table which she stared at.

Sakae grinned. "One strawberry milk coming right up, madam of darkness and despair!" Gaining a light chuckle from Kohaku, she skipped away from the table and towards the vending machine; luckily, the line was already gone. She skimmed through the options, trying to decide what she wanted. "Hmm... What looks good...?" she asked herself aloud. Eventually, she settled for a strawberry-flavored Fanta and then bought Kohaku _two_ strawberry milks; her friend went through beverages like they were nothing, therefore she was getting two. When the three drinks were in her hands, she heard someone call her name. She turned around and spotted Light; not too far behind him, Ryuk was floating. Instinctively, she glared at him; the night of their disagreement was near the top of her list of worst nights ever. Staring at him, she carefully shifted the drinks in her hand so she could open her own. "What do you want, Light?" She sipped some of her Fanta.

Light rubbed the back of his head, appearing nervous; Sakae could've sworn she saw a hint of blush in his cheeks, but thought nothing more of it as she waited for him to speak. "Well..." he started off slowly. "I wanted to apologize..."

Shocked, Sakae accidentally sprayed some of her beverage on Light. "Oh gosh!" she exclaimed, upon realizing what she did. "I'm so sorry!" She hadn't expected _him_ to apologize; she thought Kohaku and herself would have to do the honors. _Maybe the Light we know is still in there somewhere_ , she thought as she watched Light wipe his uniform jacket with a napkin he had been carrying.

Light waved his hand. "It's fine. Just-" He stared at her, no longer wiping his jacket; he was still holding the napkin, too. "Just... Do you accept my apology?"

Sakae stared at him for a moment before sighing, shaking her head slightly. If her hands weren't full, she'd place her hand on his shoulder. "Light, in the words of our mutual friend Kohaku and also please excuse my language, that was such a _half-assed_ apology." She sighed again. " _Technically_ , you didn't apologize; you just said that you were going t-oh, nevermind." She huffed. "I guess I could accept your _attempt_ at an apology, but you were such a jerk, Light. I don't think I can forgive you _completely_ , not yet anyway."

Light nodded shortly. "I understand. I... I didn't have the best reaction to...certain matters." He frowned. "I regret how I treated you." A few seconds passed by. " _Both_ of you."

Sakae didn't seem to notice the delay in his statement. She'd cross her arms if she could, but she still had her drink, and Kohaku's drinks, in her hands. "I know, but you still have to think about others, Light; we can't always agree with you." She sighed, _yet again_. "Come on, you still have to apologize to Kohaku, except try doing a better job because, well, you know how she is..." She bit her lip, glancing towards the table where Kohaku was sitting. "The disagreement bothered her the most, I think..." _She blames herself for everything..._

Light nodded. "I know." Sakae gave him a questioning look. "I expected such."

"Ah." Sakae nodded. "Come on." She walked past him, heading towards Kohaku's table; Ryuk remained verbally unacknowledged as he followed silently behind Light. Sakae grimaced when she noticed that Kohaku looked annoyed; she clearly didn't want Light around. "Hey, Kohaku," she awkwardly greeted, biting her lip again out of nervousness; she didn't know how she'd react. "Uh, here's your milk. I got you two since you love it so much." She placed the strawberry milks in front of Kohaku; she got a gentle thanks in return. Sakae sat down beside her. "I brought someone who wishes to apologize for what he did and said," she announced as Light silently sat across from them.

"Yeah, I noticed," Kohaku replied in a bitter tone. "But I don't exactly _hear_ an apology."

Sakae sighed, sipping some of her drink again. "Yeah, about that, I didn't exactly get one myself, so..."

"Shocker," Kohaku sarcastically remarked. She downed the first milk in a single move. "I'm not even surprised. He's never had to apologize for anything in his life. Of course he doesn't know how to do it when he finally fucks up." She shook her head, rolling her eyes. She lightly glared at Light. "You just gonna sit there and look awkwardly out of place or are you going to start speaking your piece?"

Light stared at her. "You're still mad."

Kohaku responded with sarcasm. "Nah, how'd you guess?" She rolled her eyes again. "Yes, I'm still mad. Why wouldn't I be? You could've-" She glanced around at the crowded cafeteria. "You could've done a really bad thing to someone who didn't deserve it." She sipped at her second container of milk. "But whatever, you're forgiven. _Mostly_. There, now you don't have to try apologizing. You got mad because the plans have changed. That's understandable. I can't, however, forgive you for what you did prior to...what happened. So, let's leave it at that and move on." Light smirked and nodded; Kohaku felt like strangling him. "Anyways, hi," she greeted, trying to control her anger. "I haven't spoken to you guys in, what, five years?"

Sakae giggled. "Try five _days_." She finished her drink.

Kohaku waved her hand, uncaring. "Days, years; it's the same thing. I had resorted to speaking with myself like an insane person, so it was a pretty long time, goddamn it."

"If you say so," Sakae said. She half-smiled. "Sooo, is everything going back to normal now...?" She missed her friends.

Kohaku shrugged. "I don't know." She finished her second milk. "Define normal."

Sakae hesitated, glancing between her friends. "Before we found the notebook."

"Unlikely," Light remarked, picking at his food. Neither of his friends had noticed he brought a lunch with him.

Kohaku sighed. "Sakae, I don't know why you thought Light would stop using the notebook. Clearly, he won't be stopping any time soon, based on his remark. It could be years from now before he finally tosses it away, but even then, I don't think things will return to how they once were. Everything has changed and there's no going back. This right here is as good as it'll get."

"That doesn't mean we still can't have the relationship we used to have," Sakae stated.

"I feel like you didn't hear a single word I just said." Kohaku rubbed her face, sighing. "Look, things are still pretty tense between all of us or at least between Light and I. So, as I said, I don't think things will return to how they were before." She understood that Sakae wanted things to be normal again, she wanted that as well, but there was no changing anything that happened. All they could do was prevent their friendship from getting worse.

"Okay..." Sakae frowned.

"So..." Kohaku stared at Light, speaking quietly. "Kill anyone else lately?"

"Perhaps," Light answered with a smirk. Sakae stayed silent, her eyes on Ryuk; he was staring back at her.

Kohaku glared at him, stopping herself from slamming her fist against the table. "Just tell me exactly what you've done, so I can tell you if you're an idiot or not. Some of your plans are reckless, if you haven't noticed." _L would've been stumped about your location if you hadn't fucked up. Because of your reckless thinking, he has a trail; it's really small but it exists. Why did I forgive this fool?_

"May I ask why I need to reveal what I've done within the past five days?" he asked in a mocking tone. "I thought you didn't want any part in this anymore?"

"Did you not hear the words I said?" Kohaku questioned back. She continued in a quieter tone. "Dude, I'm trying to help you keep your identity a secret from L and I can't do that if I don't know what you're planning or what you've done, but since you wanna use that mocking tone with me, I won't waste my breath about it anymore." She glared at him as he smirked at her again. "I hate you sometimes." _I hate you most of the time, actually. We never should've taken that damn notebook._ She didn't hear his remark after that, but responded anyway. "Whatever." Light chuckled slightly and Sakae smiled a little; Kohaku figured she responded correctly and sighed. _Hopefully, things won't get any worse than this..._

* * *

 **Fact One: The new Kohaku scene, where she gets shot, was inspired by something that was mentioned in a later chapter of the original work, a scene where she mentioned that she had been shot before. Only differences are Light knows about it and the shooting was actually shown this time around.**

 **Fact Two: Kohaku's personality is all over the place and that's what makes her so perfectly imperfect. She's sometimes odd, sometimes awkward, occasionally intelligent, tends to be caring, can be friendly and extremely unfriendly, is quite hot-headed at times, is both social and anti-social, and somewhat sensitive.**

 **Fact Three: The timeline might be a little off from canon, as mentioned in the beginning note.** **Maybe not in this chapter, but perhaps in a future one.**

 **Fact Four: Originally, this chapter ended with the FBI agent following Light, Sakae, and Kohaku. I decided, last minute, to move that.**

 _ **Revamped: Sometime in February or March, 2019; September 4th-October 9th, 2019**_

 ** _Original Word Count: Approximately Near 5,500_**

 ** _Word Count Before Re-Edit: N/A_**

 ** _New Word Count: 9,027_**


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